TWO very serious things have come to light since the demise of Hulton Park.

First and most important, this country needs to get its act together on habitat protection.

At present, no native species have habitat protection under law.

We have the ridiculous situation where you need a licence to handle a snake, but you are free to set fire to its habitat.

Secondly, the voting system used in large planning applications needs to be looked at.

Hulton Park has many critically endangered species within its boundaries.

Those councillors who voted for the Ryder Cup to come to Bolton are totally responsible for their further demise.

Hulton Park's wild life will be decimated, never to recover.

One in 10 species of Britain’s wild life is on the verge of extinction, with this fiasco you can see why.

Since the closing of the pit heads 60 years ago, Hulton Park has given stability to its wild life, it has been able to blossom and reproduce and in doing so able to feed other areas, a very rare commodity in today’s society and a loss not just to Bolton but the country as a whole.

Where hundreds of millions of pounds are involved in planning applications, it should not rest on the shoulders of individual party members to finalise planning decisions.

The system now in use can be so easily open to abuse.

A better way needs to be found to protect the public’s rights from speculators. Political parties need to be accountable for large planning decisions so that open local government can be seen to be working.

Government bodies like Natural England need more power to their elbow, habitat protection needs to become law.

Many Third World countries give better protection to their wild life than we do.

Peter German

Highfield Road

Farnworth