Best mowers are the ones that have four legs
A few years ago, the Sussex Downs Conservation Board proposed this same scheme for the downland above Lancing for just a few weeks each year for the sheep to "do their job".
The local council was keen for this scheme to go ahead but a few short-sighted people in Lancing raised a campaign to prevent this happening, drumming up support by exaggerating what would happen if this brilliant idea went ahead.
Advertisement
Hide AdAdvertisement
Hide AdSome of these short-sighted people are still giving themselves "pats on the back" over their "win", stating that the Conservation Board "threw their teddies out of the pram" and walked away.
These lovely four-legged "scrub mowers" who have been grazing on the downs since at least the 1700s are now used in many areas of the Downs with the same success as they are having in Brighton and this ensures the return of the grassland habitat with its splendid array of flowers, wild herbs and insects.
The Lancing "two legged mowers" who claim to be doing what sheep would happily do for them could perhaps try their hand at becoming "part-time shepherds", too.
Mrs Margaret Wheeler
The Street
North Lancing
NOTE: All letters must include a name and address.
Write in to Readers' Letters, Worthing Herald series, Cannon House, Chatsworth Road, Worthing, BN11 1NA, or email the Herald.
-------------------------------------
Click here for more readers' letters.
Advertisement
Hide AdAdvertisement
Hide AdWhere are you? Add your pin to the Herald's international readers' map by clicking here.
Email the Herald: [email protected]
Click here for the Herald staff directory.
Want to read this page in French, German, Spanish, Polish, Portuguese, Urdu or 48 other languages? click here for Google translate.