Letter: We must not allow mobile cafes plans to go ahead

With reference to your article ‘Plea to block Forest mobile cafes, we should strongly support the verderers to restrict their use in Forest car parks.

Forestry England has lost the plot in yet another way. This must not happen.

It is obvious that animals will be attracted to them for food, plus there will be litter. You can not be served a drink without a cup or served food without wrappings.

The reason given is to create revenue from licence money to fill in pot holes in car parks. They should, however, consider why pot holes are there in the first place and address the problem in a sustainable way.

I can give you an example of their ineptitude to provide a more sustainable surface. Take, for example, the creation of the new car park at Hatchet Pond, which within a year is now pot hole city. To create this car park a large area of grassed Forest gravel was excavated and removed and replaced with what appears to be a hoggin type material which disintegrates when wet under wheels. If the original hard surface had been retained and overlaid with ‘ground mesh reinforcement’ this would not have happened and would have saved a lot of money. It would not have changed the appearance or existing ecology. The large grass surface would have been retained for grazing just as it is in campsites.

There is to consider the British tradition of the ice cream van which, of course, should be preserved.

Robert Young

Pilley