FOLLOWING your article on the Sluice, I visited the riverside to view the artwork. Like most other people I usually go to soak up the natural beauty. This time I felt sickened – on one side of the river was this piece of industrial machinery and on the o

FOLLOWING your article on the Sluice, I visited the riverside to view the artwork.

Like most other people I usually go to soak up the natural beauty. This time I felt sickened - on one side of the river was this piece of industrial machinery and on the other side was the tragedy of 10 fresh stumps of mature willows, probably representing the destruction of a total of a thousand years growth.

Both these events bear witness to our obsession with money and man-made objects, rather than nature, on which the physical and mental well-being of us and our fellow creatures depends. I know it is claimed that at least some of the trees were diseased but I cannot help think that profit and convenience to the marina owner were a factor given this is the same person who has slaughtered hundreds of trees at Roswell Pits in pursuit of a marina development there.

Do we really want the riverside to be a boat factory devoid of mature trees and the creatures that depend on them?

Is this the future we want for our children?

JOHN DADSON

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