I read with interest last week the results of your poll regarding the future possibility of a large cull of the wild boar that are thriving within our delightful Forest.

If of course the Forest still looked as stunning as it once did e.g. before the boar increased so that their disturbance of ground and general destruction created an almost continuous border of churned mud and debris, I could understand the sentiments behind the opinion of the masses whom appear to want to keep things as they are.

Firstly I would like to suggest that things will not stay as they are, the numbers of the boar will continue to increase rapidly and the destruction that goes with it will do likewise.

The areas over which the boar will roam, ever more confidently, will too increase as the competition for food and territory increases.

The boar were rare, hardly seen, hardly causing any harm but now I am just as likely to see a wild boar as a sheep while I navigate through the Forest and now I don't even need to go anywhere, they are encroaching onto the public play area, known as the Mense on Primrose Hill, no longer hidden away in the deep dark heart of the Forest but right there where we our children are intended to play. How long before they are in the town itself I wonder?

Will this stop if we do nothing? Of course it will not. Are the risks to the health and safety of the Forest residents reducing if we do nothing? Of course not.

Is our famous and fabulous Forest, an area of outstanding beauty and wonder going to remain so if we do nothing. Of course not.

So how about something a little more radical?

We control the numbers of the boar and the areas in which they are permitted to roam, obviously. How, and this is the radical bit.

We allow licensed gun holders/hunters to hunt the boar. We charge a great fee for this 'elitist sporting opportunity'. Other countries achieve this successfully with wild animals including boar and we are not as a nation innocent are we? Pheasants, grouse, deer, all can be shot legally and for a fee.

So, the local council make a huge increase in their funds by charging the hunt fee, local business makes an increase in its funds by offering services to the increased number of visitors to the area, hotels, shops, public houses, Forestry Commission areas, town car parks.

So many financial gains can be made by so many if this legal management of hunting were to operate, plus you have the by products of meat to sell.

I don't like to think of innocent animals being killed but that's going to happen anyway and sooner or later people are going to be hurt and or killed in increasing numbers by increasingly prominent boar.

So for once can't we think a little more proactively; think about the future, for the boar, for the people who live here, for the opportunities it will bring and the advantages that the money created can bring.

– Alternative thinker, Aylburton.