The fields at the end of Camp Road along the Fleet are a great place to walk dogs, especially when so many council run areas don’t allow dogs off the lead for six months of the year.

But the free running of dogs across the fields in the bird breeding season is endangering the nesting skylarks.

Skylarks are in decline across the UK, mostly due to farming practices, so a grass field not used for hay or silage is a boon for them.

Unfortunately some people refuse to control their dogs for the few weeks of nesting, allowing them to run all over the fields, therefore likely to damage the eggs or chicks.

These fields have well walked paths across and around them, which the larks don’t nest on; these paths are enough for most of the walkers who will keep their dogs on them, but the small number of singing larks now compared with a few years ago, indicates how much damage is being done by uncaring dog owners.

Name and address supplied