Is nature trying to tell us something?
No doubt like me many Rotherham residents have travelled into the town centre recently and gratefully acknowledged its luxuriant green backdrop looking towards Kimberworth, Greasbrough and Rawmarsh.
They will have been struck by the vibrant yellow fields of oilseed rape round Barbot Hall and thrilled by the fields of brilliantly red poppies towards Rawmarsh parish church.
In view of the council plans for huge new housing developments for this same area I wonder if nature is trying to tell us something. The countryside we see from our homes and roads is often considered of little value by politicians and planners and yet it is perhaps the most precious countryside of all.
Tony Dodsworth, Rotherham
See this and other letters in Friday's Rotherham Advertiser