I FOUND the Echo of July 18 to be one of real interest, re Richard Grant’s letter on Forest pollution.

The question he asks, ‘does it not point to contamination of the water, rain and pollution of the air?’ – in my opinion, of course it does and not just the New Forest.

Just look around and ask yourself, what has happened to bird life? They are far fewer than they once were. Insect life, garden bees – very few.

Ladybirds – nothing like as many as I remember. Butterflies – not many now. Wasps – not many, and they used to be in plague proportions. Trees and shrubs – not in great health.

The reason, in my opinion, is climate change pollution on a grand scale.

The health of wildlife is in decline worldwide and it is down to man and man alone.

As far as the New Forest is concerned and the south of England in general, just think – Fawley refinery to the south, and French nuclear power stations on the French north coast. Just consider the prevailing southerly wind. Just a thought.

Mrs P Coleman: ‘Striking teachers should face a fine’.

In my opinion, certainly not.

When people are being badly treated, and all negotiations have failed, what else can people do?

The well-off and privileged have their unions so why not everyone else? You can not have double standards.

Paddy Maxwell’s letter: ‘I find it hard to understand’.

Cutting disabled services is disgusting in the extreme when it is put down to shortage in the Exchequer, and then shrugging off the loss of one billion pounds on the sale of Royal Mail as just one of those things.

I too find it too hard for me to grasp.

But then I am not a right wing politician or a businessman.

C E WATTS, Southampton