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The Dell is a very well known and loved by the large number of people who use it.

More importantly, even if a piece of public land is not well known, that is no justification for fencing it off and making people pay a large fee to use it.

The solution to the problem of people not knowing about a beautiful local resource, is to tell them about it, not to fence it off, and build on it.

It will be an opportunity for families who can afford £70 a session (assuming 2 adults and 2 children - otherwise £20 per adult and £15 per child). Those who prefer not to pay such fees, will be losing a beautiful free piece of public land.

Young Guys and Gals, before you offer support for this project, see if your parents are going to be willing to pay, and how often. If you're expecting a youth club to pay, again, check how often they will.

The woods surrounding The Dell are ten to twenty times the size of The Dell itself. Any anti-social behavior will simply move 'next door'.

It's perfectly natural, and possibly even human nature, to be afraid of wooded areas where you cannot see around every corner, especially in the dark.

Having spent many an evening in the dell, I'd say that I've seen much more trouble in the street outside any pub or nightclub. During the day, The Dell is as safe as any woods. At night, it is as safe as any dark secluded area. If you're afraid of such areas, then of course, don't go during the times you are afraid, or go in with friends, but please don't ruin them for those people who currently enjoy them.

Incidentally, the Dell is one of the few places in Hitchin where it is possible to get a good view of the stars at night without being surrounded by street lights. The Jump planning application suggests it will have a 'night light' dependant on a bat survey. We're not quite sure what a 'night light' is, but are guessing it's not one of the things you plug into the wall to help your kids sleep.

The light will need to be powerful enough to light up the course from it's position next to the proposed security camera on the fence.

Current research leads us to believe that any high powered lighting will probably effect the bat population, which are a protected species.

According to Gareth Jones, biological sciences professor at Bristol University bats “have a hard wired aversion to light.” Gareth Jones is quoted in an article in the Guardian newspaper (thu 18 June 2009 “street lights a threat to bats, study finds, the full study is published in Current Biology on the same day.) “This study shows that light pollution may force bats to use sub optimal flight routes and potentially causes isolation of preferred foraging sites, and therefore must be considered when developing conservation policy.

As all species of bats in this country are given the protection of law (as a protected species) it is illegal to do anything to harm them or their nesting sites. Anyone can stand in the dell and watch the bats coming to life for an evenings flying and fly eating- a beautiful and PROTECTED sight.

then why are they playing on the fact that people are afraid of The Dell?

We do accept that projects like this can increase self esteem. We just really don't like them playing on your fear.

Absolutely. At least, those that can afford it.

Youth groups, and other organisations will be able to apply for funding, but how often?

If you ask a child if they think this is a good thing, they will more often than not agree. That it is, until you explain that they can only use it once a year (figures pulled from thin air, we don't know how often councils will be willing to provide funding for such ventures, but we think that currently, neither do you - if you want to support this project, because you think you'll get to use it for free, we suggest you find out).

To only allow access once a year, while the rest of the time it is necessary to fund it by selling it for use for corporate team building courses, or hen and stag parties, is not the community project this idea is currently being sold as.

It's certainly not worth losing one of the most beautiful natural areas of Hitchin for.

The cost of this project is estimated to be in hundreds of thousands of pounds, much/most of which is coming from public funding. For a fraction of that budget, we could pay someone to clear it up. The Dell is public land maintained by North Herts District Council. If you really want it tidy, ask the council to ensure they maintain it.

Every now and then, we go down there and clear it up ourselves, although we accept it still ends up being untidy again given time.

However, even if Jump are cleaning up the litter that arrives during the day time, they will be locking the area at night, and all of the litter that used to turn up at night, will just end up in the surrounding woods, or on Windmill Hill, or wherever those people choose to hang out instead.

Again, the solution to this problem, is to sort out the litter, Not to fence the entire area off.

Personally, we prefer the idea that we have free access to somewhere beautiful and occasionally untidy, to a 130m long 2.4m high fence running around the entire base of The Dell.

children will happily play on it where ever it is.

It might be nice if it is in a secluded area, but it's not essential. If you really want children to experience being high up in a secluded area, develop the project in any of the woodland areas of North Hertfordshire, where they really will experience a small piece of wilderness.

If Youth Clubs are applying for funding to use such facilities, then take the children to a facility that is in proper woodland, so the children get a feeling of 'really being outdoors'. There are numerous projects throughout the country that cater for this.

By developing this project in the Dell, this project would be preventing the rest of us from experiencing that secluded area during our general day to day lives.

We accept this and we are not stating that users will have to pay for the third/quarter of the base of The Dell Jump intend to leave available to us. Our point is that Jump intend to fence off the entire base of The Dell. If people then want to use the base of The Dell, they will be surrounded by this fence, and Jump are charging people if they want to use the two/thirds to three quarters which they will be taking over. Jump will be fencing off the entire base of The Dell

You won't be able to sit in the remaining third/quarter and ignore Jump.

We question what happens at times when Jump are not there to open the gates, or are they going to do this 365 days a year, but also ask why Jump have no regard for those people who choose to use this area at night?

We also would re-iterate the previous point, you might be able to get inside the fence in the day time, but you'll only have access to a tiny section of the base of the dell. The rest will be monopolised by Jumps course.

More people will use The Dell if you relocate the council tip there.

It's no justification for fencing off and spoiling such a beautiful place. The Dell is unique in character. There are lots of places you could build such a project, and only one dell in Hitchin town centre.