2:00pm Tuesday 9th February 2010
BOURNEMOUTH council has reassured residents that work going on at Hengistbury Head is necessary to protect wildlife.
Ward councillors Basil Ratcliffe and Eddie Coope were contacted by worried residents who said that land at Whitepits was being cleared by machinery.
But Mark Holloway, senior community parks & countryside officer, said that the work had been agreed with Natural England and would help rare wildlife.
He said: “These habitat management works are part of the enhancement of the Nature Reserve and the Site of Special Scientific Interest and have been agreed with Natural England.
“We introduced cattle grazing to this area three years ago in order to discourage scrub such as gorse and bramble in favour of grasses and wildflowers, insects, mammals, the rare natterjack toads and birds. However sometimes the scrub is so dense the cattle cannot make any inroads therefore we need to manually remove it, which is what we are doing at present.”
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