I FIND that nearly all the wildlife sites in Bournemouth and Poole over the last 40 years have vanished.

If you walked the undeveloped sites in Poole Borough Council’s control 40 years ago, you would see an abundance of life so rare that the stories about them made their way into the national press and into Europe.

Dartford warblers and sand lizards in abundance. Poole had at one time one of the largest Dartford warbler colonies in the British Isles.

The rare life spoke of required heathland and sandy soils for its survival but the heathland was called “waste land” by developers and the council’s response was that “People have to live somewhere” and in that manner the rare sites were dug up and developed. And that is how we lost our local heath land and its rare wildlife.

And what have we got left today? Almost nothing.

DOUGLAS MILLS

Fraser Road, Poole