Last year I expressed dismay over the crazy proposal by the government and DEFRA to destroy a centuries old prime Kent woodland nightingale habitat and 'move' the birds to a newly planted wooded alternative site a couple of miles away.

What utter nonsense.Every such re-location of wildlife has always ended in failure.Now,the government plans to encourage developers to build on supposedly protected National parks and create alternative wildlife areas nearby in a scheme called 'biodiversity offsetting'.

No political party cares or has the will,wit or wisdom to understand that a connection with the natural world benefits our emotional,physical and spiritual health.Without that access to wild places our lives are greatly diminished.

In my childhood I spent many happy hours freely roaming the Northamptonshire countryside.I walked along hedgerows,peered into ponds and loved hearing songs of skylark,yellowhammer and lapwing,all iconic countryside dwellers.Butterflies abounded,hares sped across meadows and wild flowers bloomed.

Recently I flew low over my old Northamptonshire haunts and looking down,was saddened to see most of those fields of corn clover and copses developed under sprawling housing estates and roads.Where had all the flowers gone?what had happened to to the birds and butterflies?

Of course,houses must be built but not on pristine greenfield or wooded areas.There are many more worrying projects pending such as HS2 rail link in the pipeline and our precious countryside is under threat as never before.

The latest proposal nearer to home seeks to develop lovely greenbelt land around Chessington.Just what on earth is happening to our once green and pleasant land?