Hands Off Hartlebury Common

I'm looking forward to my interview, BBC 10.00 am Thursday main Hartlebury road car park. I have just come back from the common, "A wonderful, beautiful,place"

I met a chap and as usual I handed him a leaflet and asked his opinion.
Restoring the common to heathland was in his opinion perfectly fitting.

I asked him "Why?" He said "Because it needed to be managed." I asked him "Why?" He said "Because we would lose the heath." I answered, "We are told by Natural England and WCC that it has not been managed for 100yrs. Has it not done a good job of managing itself".
"If it is not managed, there will be no heath." "Ok" I said "But how come there is plenty of area not colonised by either trees or heather. Wouldn't the heather have colonised these areas by now.80% of the common is without tree cover anyway"

We moved onto the cattle and fire risk at the common. I asked him what he thought the cattle would do if there were raging fires. "They will do what any wild animal would do" and what would that be I asked. Not answering he stated "The fire was put out pretty damn quick anyway and it was only restricted to one spot and it burnt itself out". Really I said, I told him that, "The fire burnt for 5 hours before it was brought under control, the flames were over a 100 ft high It took 6 appliances and 50 firefighters. It was only because of the actions of the firefighters and staff that curtailed further disaster. "Well they did it" was his reply I explained about the drier nature of the common and it's greater potential for fire because of the felling of trees and scrub but to no avail. "Anyway" he said brightley, "The fencing is good for dog walkers"

The thing is, like Natural England, WCC, he could not muster a single reasoned substantive point of view or argument and seemed to feel as if my arguments were heretical without knowing why. As time goes by, I am begining to believe more, that the title, "Heathland Madness, the Juggernaut of Nature Conservation" could not be more relevant to Hartlebury. It's as if common sense has become mesmerised and transfixed. The success of authoritive bodies is to win at all costs, the public are to be quashed, opinion ignored, the end game more important than any thing else.