Save wild places

I AM flabbergasted that the Government is offering millions to farmers to make space for nature by rewilding (Mail), but is reluctant to save wild spaces from housing development. I have been campaigning since 2017 to save a local wildlife site, Middlewick Ranges, from being sold for housing.

It is owned by the Ministry of Defence and used as a firing range, but the public have always had access when live firing is not taking place.

There are 600 species of flora and fauna, including many that are protected. We have bats, butterflies, skylarks, nightingales, owls, badgers, foxes and muntjac deer. This green lung has been a godsend during the lockdowns.

However, the MoD and Colchester Borough Council want to sell it to developers. There is talk of creating a wildlife sanctuary on the site when the houses are built — but by then the noise, dust and dirt will have driven away the wildlife.

DIANE APPLEBY, Colchester, Essex.