JOHN CUMBERLAND (HAS, Nov 15) pays fulsome tribute to the layout, landscaping and management of Hardwick Park, Sedgefield, but I doubt if many who knew and cherished the park as it used to be will share his sentiments.

What the park used to be was nothing less than an incredibly diverse array of natural and semi-natural habitats, comprised of ponds, wetland with dense sedge and reed-beds, Alder Carr, mature woodland and species-rich grassland in short, a precious ecological gem.

Now all gone, erased, to make way for - what?

For a very large artificial lake, that's what.

Or, put another way, a huge and largely sterile expanse of open water with a few seagulls and the occasional duck in attendance.

You would have thought - wouldn't you? - that all the local conservation bodies would have weighed in with solid arguments in defence of the pristine character of the park, but as far as I am aware, they raised never a murmur or lifted a finger.

Tony Kelly, Crook.