I WENT to one of my favourite places in Warrington last week.

I have to confess I have not been for three months, and I knew it was coming, but what a sad sight it was.

I am talking about Grappenhall Heys.

I went at the weekend and the Armada of housing is on the march.

Dozens of them can’t be 50 yards from the walls of the garden.

They also border what was once a beautiful, quiet path through fields between Grappenhall Cricket Club and the walled garden.

And many more are due to come.

I have always been aware this was development land (the other houses there are only 20 or so years old) but it does not make the sight any the less depressing.

All the houses look identical, as if they could have been built in any middle class estate anywhere in the country.

And to be so close to historic property is just incredibly sad.

The roads in that part of town are already jammed so hundreds more motorists trying to get through Stockton Heath will not be fun.

In short, this is a sad situation.

I appreciate there is progress, but surely not at the expense of our countryside.

It is too precious to be lost to the great bulldozer of profiteering housing developers.

JAMES MCGINLEY

Latchford