This Facebook post is from recently retired HDC Parks and Countryside Manager Evan Giles in response to an article in the West Sussex Gazette.

Having taken early retirement from Horsham District Council last year as Parks & Countryside Manager, it is really pleasing to see Horsham receive this accolade as a top town for gardens.

It is important to point out that Horsham's award of the prestigious Britain in Bloom honour related as much to care for the natural environment as to its floral prowess.

With the government's current approach to housing development, it is hugely important to understand what impact that the continued massive pressures for housing development could have on our town's natural heritage. The Britain in Bloom judges recognised what an important contribution Warnham Nature Reserve made to biodiversity and sustainability for Horsham.

If Rookwood Golf Course is treated as a massive housing extension to the town, the impact for Warnham Nature Reserve is a huge squeeze to its hinterland - the adjacent habitats which contribute life to the nature reserve itself. It is futile to fool ourselves into thinking that the Reserve can be protected as a 'bubble' and that habitats aren't inter-connected. Likewise, we can't pretend to ourselves that eco-friendly design won't still have a devastating impact on the Reserve. The effect is called habitat fragmentation and would be at a local level what is happening on the Amazon rainforest. Once a pristine ecological site is lost, it is lost forever.

If you haven't taken your children or grandchildren to Warnham Nature Reserve to see the amazing kingfishers - one of the best sites in the country to see them, then I suggest that you do so now.