Hands Off Hartlebury Common

Cattle to be removed from Holt Heath

12:00pm Thursday 7th April 2011

By Harriet Marsh »

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CATTLE will be removed from Holt Heath over the winter months in a bid to reduce animal deaths on the roads, but otherwise the controversial conservation scheme is here to stay.

That’s the message from National Trust and Natural England after more than 100 angry residents squeezed into Holt Parish Hall for a public meeting on Tuesday night.

It is the latest in a long-running dispute over the re-introduction of 35 Angus cattle and six New Forest ponies to the National Nature Reserve and Site of Special Scientific Interest last August, to keep gorse and other plants under control.

Residents are up in arms after two cows had to be put down after collisions with cars, and two tame horses were injured after getting stuck in cattlegrids installed to keep the grazing stock on the heath.

The dark-coloured cattle have since been given reflective collars, but the Trust is now pledging to bring them indoors from September to March – as originally promised at the Public Inquiry in 2006, when permission was granted for the animals to roam the full heath.

Resident Trevor Neale said: “The whole scheme is flawed. Under initial proposals, those cattle should not have been there on those dark winter nights.”

Trust staff, including a grazier based in Swanage, have been given pagers after residents and police struggled to get in touch as the cows lay dying.

Many residents said they had always felt it would be better to put fencing along the road, taking away the need for the grids.

Riders now feel it is a “no go area”

following “absolutely horrific”

incidents where escaped horses have fallen through.

Those living close by the grids say the “constant rumble” is intrusive.

A National Trust spokesman said they were considering a way forward from these complex issues.

Head ranger Pete Sampson said: “This is a new scheme. We are a very small amount of time into it.

“We are still learning and took advice from experts at the New Forest.

“It’s easy to blame people for speeding or animals for jumping the ditches, but we need to raise people’s awareness of what’s around on the roads.”

It does not matter, fencing, no fencing, if management is not skilled or up to scratch in animal husbandry, the results will always be awful. Cattle do not like dogs or fires or busy places. They can push down sheep fencing as if it is not there if they want to, or are scared.

Alongside the worcester road because of the frequency and speed of the traffic the fencing should have at least one strand of barbed wire at its top. Ask a farmer. Cattle are capable of clearing a 6ft fence or wall easily if they want.

Steve McCarron