I WISH to point out a number of misconceptions in your article ‘Top flight football star promises to tidy land’.

First of all it would seem to suggest that Mr Bartle had visited the area and discovered that the strip of land in question was used by the neighbourhood. I have never seen a neighbour making any use of the area, largely because it is too small to do anything with.

It is a narrow strip of land about a foot wide at its narrowest to approximately four feet at its widest point.

Admittedly two boys and some of their friends have put a full-sized goal post on the edge of the strip at the widest point and attempted to play football causing noise pollution amongst the nearest neighbours, kicking the ball around the roadway. (There are at least 14 vehicles regularly using this roadway – does this constitute a health and safety risk?)

In any case since this land is privately owned it amounts to trespass for anyone to be on it without permission.

On a historical note the strip of land with its shrubs was created as part of the plan submitted by the builders Portford Homes as a condition of obtaining planning permission to build this little estate.

Obviously, the builder was well advised to assign each of the three areas of landscaping to individual houses thus freeing Portford Homes the trouble of regular maintenance.