IN my youth, Raby Mere was recognised as one of the peninsular's premier beauty spots.

In the spring and summer months, at weekends, hundreds visited, by charabanc or train, to picnic in the woods, often with Sunday school outings or to visit the tea rooms, to go boating on the rowing or motor boats, to enjoy the swing boats and to spend their money on the slot machines.

In the winter, we skated on the ice or tobogganed on the hills nearby.

Sadly, the area is no longer beautiful ... just another expensive place to develop.

The latest blow is an eight-foot high impenetrable fence, which completely obscures all to the north of the Mere.

Surely, Wirral Council must have been consulted about this?

David Colenso, Eastham