I READ your letters page with great interest last week, as I do every week, and it never ceases to amaze me how self-centred and self-absorbed people can be.

I refer in this instance to the letter which was bemoaning the proposals to introduce car parking charges at Delamere Forest.

I have no desire to get into the debate about the rights and wrongs of such charges. I also take the writer's point that if you visit the forest at the weekend every now and then and spend a long time there when you visit, then the charges are not going to mean much to you but if you are a frequent visitor during the quiet times on weekdays then these charges will mount up into a considerable amount.

What interested me most was the writer's reasons for frequent visits to Delamere Forest. The two examples he or she quoted were 'exercising their dogs or their children' (sic).

I find this mindblowing. Does the author of that letter really equate having children to having a dog in as much as they both need exercising?

I can just picture the conversation: "Come on Ashley, come on Sarah, walkies."

I have written to you before about my views that there are far too many people who put their dogs before their children and despite the howls of protest this inevitably provokes, I have seen or heard nothing to make me change my opinion.

And let's face it, when dog owners cheerfully talk about exercising their dogs, what they really mean is taking it somewhere to let it do its mess.

Frankly, I am appalled at the idea that somewhere like Delamere Forest, a facility that should be there to be enjoyed by all, is viewed as nothing more than a large lavatory by those people who take their dogs there for 'exercise'.

I don't believe there is a charge steep enough for these thoughtless people.

Outsider

Converted for the new archive on 13 March 2001. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.