New houses in Eastbourne are inevitable

One of the Herald’s correspondents last week rightly bemoaned the additional building on green areas of the county.

It is a fact that this is inevitable because of the huge population increase in the UK ( and regionally ) over many years , up from 47 million after the war to 67 million now, and probably still rising.

The need for extra housing to meet the needs of so many people is clear.

Conservation-minded people have to get real: nearly all wildlife is in numerical decline and wild and green space will continue to disappear under concrete, the process will not stop.

Organisations such as RSPB are clearly wholly ineffective in halting the decline of most birds, every bulletin they put out emphasises further decline in numbers and that continues.

Chris Packham and other wildlife TV presenters seem to be out of touch with such realities or do little or nothing about them, some even recommending the re-introduction of wolves to the UK when just about every other existing species is dwindling , a farcical prospect.

The whole situation is most unfortunate , it has been caused by all previous governments allowing the UK population to rise inexorably, and paying scant attention to conservation

Thankfully , Boris Johnson’s Government is taking conservation much more seriously (it hosts an international environmental conference soon in Glasgow), yet has the legacy of the incompetence of previous administrations to contend with .

So we have to face the facts as they are now .

World-wide the situation is even worse – billions of excess people all needing space , and the rainforest of Brazil continues to be wantonly burnt down.

Our government needs support in its fresh environmental initiatives, and it remains to be seen whether all nations will rise to the challenge.