BEACON reader Cerys Atkins was horrified earlier this week when she looked out of her window and found the view had been changed, literally overnight.

Describing "the sight that now greets my eyes as I wake". Mrs AStkins, who lives at Monnow Meadows in Monmouth, said "No birdsong floats through my window and the little feet that yesterday rustled and scurried through the fallen leaves have fled. There will be no nuts or berries next year, maybe even years to come, to feed the survivors of this winter and any offspring they may manage to raise, with nowhere to build their nests".

Mrs Atkins said the area was the product of eight year's growth of native tree species, planted as a corridor for wildlife running through the new housing estate. "It is some meagre, inadequate compensation to the wild creatures whose habitats had been lost forever when houses, roads and tarmac driveways were built over the land.

"It consists of pockets of shrubbery dotted along the paved cycle track, the verges of which are grassed over and hedged. There is even a seasonal stream (aka a drainage ditch, but no matter, bulrushes and yellow flags grow there and frogs love it).

"Now, after eight years of allowing nature to thrive and delight the people who live here, Monmouthshire County Council has decided it needs managing...the resulting devastation came about by dictat of the council's 'landscape' department. The word seems utterly inappropriate, 'scorched earth' or 'blasted heath' would make more sense to me. Yes it will grow back, stunted and misshapen, but have I got another eight years to wait?"

She asked: "Why did they do it? To appease those timorous persons who 'do not feel safe' walking along the wildlife corridor at night...did it never occur to officials to suggest that perhaps, they might walk along the well lit streets on pavements kindly provided for pedestrians, instead?

"I fear this is yet another example of the 'Health and Safety' fascism that pervades our lives to an ever increasing and highly alarming degree. Where will it all end? If people are afraid of the 'wild wild woods' would the council oblige and chop them all down? Or would common sense prevail and such people be redirected to the nearest theme park carefully designed to eliminate all possible hazards from their impoverished lives?

"We live in dangerous times all right, one of the greatest dangers seems to me to be the erosion of the quality of our lives by ever encroaching state interference in matters they simply do not understand.

"Far better to call in the experts such as the Gwent Wildlife Trust to manage an area designed and provided for wildlife.

"If we allow the council to continue destroying such a valuable asset in this mindless wanton way then we have only ourselves to blame when our estate, this summer looking the loveliest it has ever looked, begins to resemble a concrete jungle once again. It is not only the wildlife who will be the losers" added Mrs Atkins.

Nigel Leaworthy, Landscape Manager at the County Council, said on Tuesday: "We can confirm that we have recently received a complaint from a resident of Monnow Meadows regarding the cutting back of the "Shrubbery". The resident's concerns were regarding wildlife, particularly birds, which she thought would not return after the hedges had been pruned.  

"We have a duty to maintain our hedges to keep them safe and to keep the area tidy.  We have pruned the hedges at this time of year to ensure that we do not disturb any birds nests and other wildlife and we are confident that they will be back in the hedges in no time.

"At the time of receiveing the resident's complaint, we also received many compliments about the work we have done at the site" the officer added.