Hands Off Hartlebury Common

#757: Steve McCarron - Re:  

 The reason why I made reference to the grazing is that I would have thought that someone who claims to be passionate about the common and also claims to have lived near by would have been aware that a number of gypsey families lived and over wintered on bother the upper and lower common and were evicted in the early 1960s. They grazed a much larger area than in the recent past. The age of the trees indicates that the invasion of trees started post theses evictions and the cessation of their tethered grazing. The opportunity to correct the mistakes of the past has been given by the external funding. The works will look drastic for a while but the common will recover, the heathland plants, heathers and grasses will recolonise and the scars faid. They are already doing so. As a for example I would draw your attention to the sand pit excavated at the back of the carpark where you have removed the fencing which is now indistinct and all but grassed over. If these works are not done then the common will revert to woodland as happened to Newbury Common where grazing ceased during WW2 and never recommenced.