It is good to be able to share some good news.

A fellow party member and constituent of mine, Miranda Shirnia told me last week of the erection of nets to stop birds nesting in hedges around the former council houses that Green Square is planning to demolish at Bendy Bow in Oaksey.

I called the local Wiltshire Cllr (Berry) to pass on the complaint and the RSPB to find out what their advice was.

Miranda wrote to both the parish council and to Green Square and when I visited at the weekend I was told by local resident Jon Adams, that they have been told by the developers that the nets are to come down this week, making it safe for birds to next again!

He also pointed out the house martins’ and the humble house sparrows’ nests that are back in use on the houses waiting for demolition (house sparrows have themselves been seeing declining numbers of late).

The RSPB advice is not to use nets on hedges or trees during the nesting season, and if they are used not to use plastic (nylon) nets and to ensure that any nets that are used are checked three times a day for trapped birds.

It is good that Green Square has listened and is now taking the netting down, but it is a lesson to other developers not to use nets in the first place, and follows on from a net removal that my friend and colleague Cllr Hopkinson from Corsham Pickwick oversaw last year.

Well done to all who wrote in to complain, it is good to see ordinary people’s voices being listened to for the sake of our wildlife.

Dr Brian Mathew

Prospective Liberal Democrat MP for North Wiltshire