I WAS extremely interested in the letter from Nigel Ingram of the Rowntree Foundation (July 28) and his promise that if the foundation gets the go-ahead for the Derwenthorpe development project, it will create a much better environment for the newts than they have in the present site.

As the Osbaldwick residents have no means of communicating with the crested newts to ascertain their views the residents will, I suppose, have to take his word for it!

There are still the problems of (a) loss of a natural habitat for other wildlife, wildflowers and plants due to disruption and chaos caused by the proposed development, and (b) the pollution and noise from ever increasing traffic which will adversely affect the local residents who, presumably, chose to live in the area with the hope of enjoying peace and tranquillity.

Finally, Nigel Ingram claims the creation of an environment, including ponds, will be managed and maintained. However he does not mention who will meet the initial costs and the subsequent costs of maintenance. Will it be the lease holders and tenants of the model community?

Elizabeth Earle,

Dower Court,

York.

...BEWARE of developers bearing gifts! Osbaldwick's resident crested newt population would be better off without the help offered by Nigel Ingram, development director for Joseph Rowntree Housing Foundation (Letters, July 28).

His "protection", if rumour is correct, will be the abduction and deportation of what crested newts he can find, to internment in a newly created and untried site elsewhere.

His price is the destruction of Osbaldwick's 53 acres of wildflower meadows together with their remaining wildlife.

The best protection for the newts and all other resident wildlife is for proper management of the meadows to be restored at once and for them to be designated a site of interest for nature conservation - something we now know should have happened many years ago.

Rowntree's as yet unbuilt housing estate should go on the ample brown field sites available elsewhere.

Barry Potter,

Vice chairman,

York Natural Environment Trust,

Knapton Lane,

York.

...THOSE of your readers who saw the letter from Mr Brumby labelling Barry Potter a BANANA may think he is being terribly original (July 27). However, the earliest use of the term I am aware of is in the Sydney Morning Herald in January 1991, some 13 years ago.

I would also like to provide the following quote from Dr Richard Leakey, former head of the Kenya Wildlife Service that he made in a speech to the Species Survival Network in 1997.

"The term 'bunny huggers' has been used to describe some of us who are concerned about the fate of wild species.

"To belittle our noble cause is the practice of the shallow, the insecure and the incompetent, be it in the realm of wildlife or liberty and justice."

I personally would be honoured to be in such illustrious company as Dr Leakey.

Mick Phythian,

Monkton Road,

York.

...I HATE to disappoint M Warters (Letters, July 29) but the only thing I've "covered in concrete" since the 1984-85 miners' strike has been a long and growing list of abandoned coal mine shafts.

On a more positive note, however, I have also restored many hundreds of hectares of old colliery sites and spoil heaps, planted many tens of thousands of trees, created much-needed large water features and heathland and much else besides.

Many of these disused sites now teem with wildlife (including newts).

M Warters clearly knows very little about civil engineering and nothing whatever about my professional career.

But this isn't surprising. It seems amateur "environmentalists" almost never bother to check their facts.

Martin Brumby,

East Parade,

York.

Updated: 11:36 Monday, August 02, 2004