I HAVE noticed damage to the cliffs recently by Bournemouth council employees armed with chainsaws and flails.

Bournemouth’s cliffs are the town’s most valuable nature area, covering hundreds of untouched acres.

The varied plants growing on Bournemouth’s steep soft soil cliffs are a haven for all manner of insects, reptiles, birds and mammals.

In a period of marked climate change and increased rainfall and storms, good thick vegetation on the cliffs is the principle way of stopping erosion and stabilising the cliff faces.

With all this in mind, how is it that a significant part of Bournemouth’s cliffs at this moment are being reduced to bare earth?

I have witnessed groups of council workmen on sea facing slopes up to 60 and 70 degrees cut down every bush and healthy mature tree, leaving nothing but bare mud slopes and directly encouraging cliff breakdown.

Also I have seen trees cut to the ground where birds regularly nest and a tracked bulldozer used to flail the ground on cliff areas where Bournemouth’s lizard population lives.

The reasons I have been given by council employees are quite simply idiotic: “People camp on the cliffs so we must remove all vegetation”, “The trees are Holm oak so must be removed,” “It might grow back and create biodiversity.” Others have said, that it’s a project dreamt up to keep council staff employed in the winter.

None of these reasons are acceptable. There already exists excellent biodiversity in the hundreds of species living on the cliffs and council workmen cutting cliffs to bare slopes can only damage this.

Every single tree and shrub on the cliff face is serving a valuable function both in preventing wind and rain damage and the increasing climatic storms driving directly into the cliff face and also providing wildlife habitat.

The foliage of the mature trees and bushes absorbs huge amounts of storm energy and prevents soil loss and movement.

Holm oak, with their thick evergreen cover and large root system, are particularly valuable in this cliff protection, growing naturally in Bournemouth’s soft cliffs on sea facing slopes where many other trees would have failed.

This irresponsible damage should stop. However, a policy of expert active planting must occur on areas already showing cliff erosion.

All other areas of the cliff face with a rich vegetation covering should be left untouched.

ROBERT WILSON

Ravine Road, Bournemouth

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