SIR, In response to the proposed building of 200 houses at Middle Battenhall Farm.

My brother, two sisters, and I were brought up here. We had the run of the fields, trees to climb, ponds where we found frogs and newts; animals were in abundance, as were butterflies, dragonflies and other insects. Nowadays teachers have to take parties of children to visit places where they can see these creatures. For us it was an idyllic childhood. Thanks to developments such as these sadly future students will have even less opportunity to engage with nature than today's children.

Imagine 200 houses each with at least two cars, that is 400 cars polluting the air with their exhausts; no more fresh clean air, you may as well live in town.

In years to come children will have to look up the word "countryside" in a dictionary, because we won't have any greenery left.

JANET DUGMORE (nee Braddock)

Worcester