AS a founder member of the Testwood Lakes Forum, I reply to Edith Randall's letter about the lakes and the field that is the remnant of Little Testwood Farm (September 6).

There is no letter from her about the recent planning application to build six three-storey office blocks just metres away from the middle (recreational) lake, with a car park for 450 vehicles. Neither was there one when the huge warehouse was built behind the Grade II Listed Little Testwood House on the same site.

Nor was there an outcry when preparations were made to tip hundreds of tons of hardcore on the top half of the field that she mentions, to make hard standings for intensive commercial use. Nor its frequent use for car boot sales, fairs, circuses, and auctions etc, some of which attracted bands of inebriated young people rampaging through nearby estate gardens on the way to the reservoir to misbehave to such an extent that the angling platforms had to be removed and the luxuriant special planting hiding the lake had to be razed to the detriment of the wildlife.

The middle lake (planned long term also to be a reservoir) is pro-tem for recreational purposes and a boathouse has been approved together with an enlarged car park.

The field now has an amenity designation - reinforced after unsuccessful application by a developer to extend the South Hants Industrial Estate across to the new huge warehouse. Football pitches are permitted on amenity land both in and outside the national park.

This application not only puts football pitches on the field but also all-weather facilities. In addition it will create a large park alongside on an area (The Old Farmyard) which has been dogged by frequently stopped unpermitted commercial activity.

The public are best assisted with facts, not sensationalism.

J J DAWSON, Totton.