Wild muntjac deer have been living in Belfairs Woods since the 80s. Stephen Aylen represents the Belfairs ward on Southend Council and has asked for an emergency meeting of the council's biodiversity working party in order to put forward his proposal of killing the deer there - "if there are deer there, we need to kill them" [1]. His reasoning is that the bark is missing from some of the trees in the woodland, which seems trivial to say the least.

Indeed, Belfairs wildlife ranger Ashley Pinnock doesn't agree with Stephen Aylen, and is quoted as saying: "We conduct a survey every year on the impact on our coppicing because, if we get large numbers, they can be detrimental to regrowth, but we have no major problems currently."

We must make it clear to Southend Council that we don't wish to see wild animals culled in the area, especially over such trivial matters as missing bark from trees.

1 - http://www.echo-news.co.uk/news/13367945._Cull_muntjac_deer_to_save_woodland_/?ref=mr&lp=13