I SAY with great sadness that the wild boar, or should I say the illegally released strain of wild boar, are now devastating our once beautiful Forest. What surprises me most is that they are eating the bluebell bulbs at an alarming rate and this can be proved as fact, by analysis of their stomach contents.

The swathes of blue bells outside my house are now so destroyed, that they will take years to recover, if at all. The fact, that people don't seem to worry about this, surprises me, since the woodlands here are world famous for them. The Friends of the Boar say all this sloughing up of our woodland is good for biodiversity, but the grass never re grows, as, no sooner do you put it all back, and I have spent days doing this, it is dug up again, making our woodland a dismal, desolate, inhospitable place that I believe, no one will eventually come to visit.

They say the boar were here 700 years or so ago which is true, but at that time they were hunted for sport, and now the Forest is supposed to be for enjoyment and recreation and is, or should I say was, seen as a place for tourism.

At first the damage wasn't too bad, but now, I can't even mow around my property anymore, as the land is in a permanent state of damage, with ruts sometimes a foot deep!

It seems such a shame, since as neighbours we used to take a pride in making things neat and tidy for walkers. I now occasionally see people out for a family walk, pathetically trying to push a pushchair over what looks like bomb damage, which once used to resemble a gentle soft green forest ride. Alas so many people are not ever going to visit a second time, as a recent letter in this paper clearly demonstrates.

I have now noticed an absence of wrens and other ground nesting birds, and no longer do I see wild orchids up here near Blakeney. You only have to drive from Speech House to New Fancy to see verges that look more like war zone damage. Drains are blocking up, which in turn will cause flooding, which will add yet more to our Council Tax, plus, who is going to fund all the expensive fencing and barbed wire around Beechenhurst, to keep out the boar? Yes, you've guessed it ...us the taxpayers. They have already cost me personally nearly a thousand pounds in extra fencing and scalping just to keep my own animals safe from the boar, and to be able to get my car out each morning.

For the people living in the towns and villages, the boar at present don't present too serious a threat but if Germany is anything to go by, things will very soon change, as there, they have become a major problem. Three people were attacked by a boar there just a matter of months ago in a residential area and two eighty year olds were knocked to the ground. The boar was eventually shot by a policeman who was seriously bitten in the process. Do we really want our children to be subjected to such a risk?

Besides their obvious danger to the public and bearing in mind you can't always see into the ferns in the height of summer, they can present a small yet very real danger to horse riders and all our pets. For years, I felt they were completely innocuous, and, it wasn't until years later that I was charged by a large boar, that I began to question their safety record. Described by one wild boar expert as our most dangerous mammal, research showed me that people have quite often been killed by these animals in Asia and even in Germany people had recently been attacked even in towns. I certainly wouldn't let my grand daughters play in the woods anymore, as these animals can run at tremendous speed and can attack with the tusks if male or give incredibly severe bites if female. I realise these occurrences are rare, but I think people should be aware of them, so as to be able to make a value judgement about their own safety and the safety of perhaps their children.

If you don't believe their speed and ferocity just Google 'Wild boar beat leopard '... for a glimpse of what they can do. I have often seen 30 or more crashing through the woodland and being that their eyesight is not good, it will only take one person in the way to cause an accident, and I shudder to think what could happen on the roads.

I have nothing against the wild boar. In fact I think it is great to see one occasionally, and wouldn't really like to see them wiped out completely from the Forest of Dean, but they didn't ask to be released here, and the irony is that now they need to be robustly managed, and the amount of damage and the number of dogs that have been attacked and injured demonstrates this is not the case at the present time. Until the wholesale destruction of the bluebells and our beautiful Forest can be addressed, I think our Forest, as we know it will change for the worse.

Furthermore, what will happen if a child is maimed or seriously injured by one of them? Are the forestry insured for this, since we are actively encouraged to walk in the woodlands. I understand they can get away with this, as the boar are free roaming so not their responsibility, and this being the reason why they do not need a dangerous animals licence to keep them. I feel we need a proper debate with all the affected parties, so as to formulate a plan of action, which is beneficial to all concerned including the boar before our bluebell woods become just a thing of the past.

– Martyn Williams, Blakeney.