THOSE of us who walk regularly in the Stour Valley Nature Reserve cannot help but question – yet again – the proposed cattle grazing plans of the Bournemouth Borough Council ’s parks department.

We must surely mention recent days of serious flooding, so much so that the evacuation of the mobile home owners was on the cards and the fact that the SNCI meadow and Brecon Close meadow are sodden with water, which are some way from the river.

This is the area where our council want to put cattle. What are we to imagine would happen to the cattle in these meadows? Under the current proposals cattle should already be there, albeit hooves deep in water, as in the case of Hicks Farm where the cattle were up to their stomachs in water.

Though a prior case of foot rot in cattle at Kinson Common is not proven, foot rot in cattle is a major problem.

The wet weather and the eventual onset of a hot humid summer provides the ideal conditions for foot rot in hoofed animals, which if not diagnosed immediately causes death.

Friends of the Stour Valley are concerned that the welfare of these animals does not appear to feature much with the parks department.

The farmification of the Stour Valley Nature Reserve is totally unsuitable for cattle, being so close to a river that floods on a regular basis.

The Nature Reserve should remain for wildlife and people’s enjoyment.

BRONWEN AND ALAN PENDRAY, Friends of the Stour Valley committee, Muscliffe Lane, Throop