A protected breeding colony of threatened water voles will collapse, say national mammal experts, if the controversial, mostly executive, housing development at Boreham’s Spurt Mead goes ahead.

This is a Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) but scant regard has been paid to important organisations who have objected strongly, including Wiltshire Wildlife Trust.

Spurt Mead is outside the Warminster settlement line and was rejected in the Core Strategy consultation. There will only be an eight-metre buffer zone from the river bank and development and the developers plan to construct a riverside path.

Imagine the effect residents, their children, dogs and cats will have on wildlife, especially water voles. Speaking as a local resident I feel strongly that the decisions our generation make now will be judged as unsustainable by our children and their children.

Sussex recently helped defeat plans for a 50-acre development on the Manhood Peninsula which would have threatened one of their most important habitats. A riparian mammal survey was properly conducted by one of the country’s leading water vole experts and obtained verifiable data. The location of the water voles on the site is significant and will mean that all mitigations will cause the population to collapse.

How could councillors who voted for this application care so little for the River Wylye, a pristine chalk stream? Once these houses have been built this water meadow will be lost forever.

John Medlicott Crockerton Warminster