When plastic beats the real thing

10:55am Thursday 17th July 2008

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I WRITE on two issues which are deeply felt.

In prime agricultural land, opposite our premises, we have recently had planted many acres of Christmas trees. I am informed grants are available for this. These fields were formerly used to provide high yields of the usual agricultural crops such as potatoes, cereals, maize, rape etc.

In these times of world food shortages and soaring prices, I feel strongly that such land should not be employed for years growing a crop which will be used for just a few days and then have to be disposed of by burning or landfill - further adding to environmental problems.

There is heavy use of machinery and herbicides, in the process, just yards away from many homes. The public should be encouraged to use plastic Christmas trees which can be re-used for years.

I feel more should be done, by way of government incentives, to encourage people to install energy saving technology such as wind turbines, solar panels etc. Other European countries are way ahead of us in this respect.

I believe many Herefordshire citizens would be well placed to take advantage of such initiatives and I would certainly give them consideration.