Madam, – Richard Herriott, in his response (March 23rd) to JJ Murphy’s letter about the cost of saving corncrakes, asks the question: “Birds or motorways?” I suspect that many people, if they were honest, would prefer public funds to be spent on the latter before the former.
Motorways, unlike biodiversity, confer tangible benefits: they can carry greater volumes of traffic more quickly and more safely than single-lane roads or dual carriageways. Commerce and the motoring public benefit from motorways. Biodiversity may be a worthy goal, but its benefits are less obvious. It is tempting to ask, as Groucho Marx did about posterity, why should I do anything for biodiversity? What has biodiversity ever done for me? – Yours, etc,