May I offer my congratulations to the employee of Didcot Power Station who wrote the latest press release on the future of the Radley Lakes?

To fool hundreds of members of the general public is impressive, but to fool a TV company wise to the `spinning' ways of big corporations and politicians is a real achievement.

This employee should ask RWE npower for a pay rise. From the company's point of view, it would be truly deserved.

However, may I offer my deepest commiserations to the people of the area who care about the landscape and wildlife?

Hopes were cruelly raised on Wednesday evening when `breaking news' appeared on the television to the effect that the Radley Lakes had been saved. Imagine the disappointment when it was discovered on Thursday that it was not true -- that npower's new proposal was still to fill the larger of the two lakes with flyash, but to leave the smaller lake alone, 10 to 15 per cent of the area. To anyone who knows the area, it is obvious you cannot drain the big lake without draining the small one.

You cannot have massive digging and the creation of huge clay bunds (banks) around the large lake without causing severe damage to the small lake. These lakes are only a few metres apart along much of their length.

RWE Npower gives us weasel words about its `ecological' solution for the Radley Lakes area. For it to utterly trash the area and displace or destroy all the rich wildlife it contains is not ecological, it is just vandalism.

Its new proposal is only marginally less bad than the previous proposal to fill the two lakes. Whichever it does will damage the area for years. As for the wildlife that depends on the lakes, they are its last refuge -- all the other lakes, apart from a big shallow pool, have been filled. There is nowhere for it to go.

Can I suggest that people go to the area and see for themselves just what RWE Npower's care for the environment amounts to?



M White, Abingdon