THE following letter has been sent to Mr Kevin?Stannard, the Forestry Commission's Deputy Surveyor.

'Please, please, please can something be done about the boar?

I wrote to you about this problem some time ago. Recently matters have become much worse. The whole area of Viney Hill is beginning to look like a pig-sty. The boar are coming out of the woods, they are churning up not only the verges but large areas of what until now have been pleasant green spaces, grazed by the sheep and where necessary cut once or twice a year by the council. My family, from East Sussex, were horrified when, on a recent visit, they came up from the A48 and turned into Viney?Hill, to see the devastation near the church.?Their first remarks on getting out of the car where: Whatever has happened?

Not, perhaps, the way to attract tourists to the Forest.

For my own part, matters have become much worse over the last few weeks. I keep my car on hardstanding at the end of my garden. When I bring it out into the narrow lane which serves my back gate and my neighbour's house, I try to park it on a wide green verge while I shut my own gates, so that it does not impede other users of the lane.

Now the boar have churned up the entire stretch of the verge adjoining my garden wall, making it impossible to use. The boar have also worked along the front of the four houses in this group, and over onto the main green.

My neighbours and I attempted some reinstatement the first time it happened, but the next night the boar were back.

Then there was a break of a couple of weeks or so. Now they have been back again and ruined all the clearing up that we had done.

I cannot get my car out without blocking the roadway. There is scattered soil and turf on the road, the front of the houses looks a mess. I have tried to put back some of the turf but the pieces are several inches thick, anything up to two or three feet across, and too heavy and twisted to be easy to handle. I am 88 years old and I cannot keep trying to clean up after a herd of pigs. Please do something.

Wild boar have large litters – they do not breed simply at replacement levels. They have now reached the stage where the depths of the Forest cannot support their numbers. Unless drastic action is taken this will only get worse, until such time as there is a serious accident or totally unacceptable damage is caused – as for instance, to one of the forest churchyards. It has already happened to children's playgrounds and to sports fields.

Please stop it before we have a real tragedy and everyone asks why something wasn't done...'

– Mrs I M Bond, Viney Hill.