Letter: Homes planned for Derritt Lane in Bransgore – let's do our bit for the future by rejecting new houses

SIR – Your front page had an article about the plan to build 100 new homes near a flood-prone area of Bransgore (A&T, 13th August). The developer will build drainage systems.

On the back page we also had the letter reminding us that there has been a 75% decline in insect populations in just 50 years – and the writer observes fewer bogs, ponds and wet areas that the insects need in the Forest.

It's worth also pointing out that the insects don’t really need us, but we sure need the insects. No insects; no pollination; not much food; rampant starvation of nearly 8-billion.

Meantime in the village next to Bransgore, of the 660-odd dwellings many are second or third homes. Burley, like Lymington and so many places locally, is second home haven.

So, we can do our bit to save the future by rejecting new homes, and putting a stonking great council tax on second homes.

Will we do it? Of course not. We will make excuses that "it makes no difference"; the UK is only 1% of emissions; "we can’t save the insects, farmers have to change their methods"; "we have the right to a second home"; and so on and so on.

Mostly, of course, the local councils and national government wouldn’t dream of solving the housing problem and saving the insects/planet in such a manner – because they might lose votes.

Your newspaper summarised the problem perfectly on the front and back page.

Everything is connected. The lives of our grandchildren are not important enough for us to change our lifestyle.

Peter Padfield,
Holmsley