Soldier family fears over hacking

14 July 2011 Last updated at 11:40 GMT Pte Hunt was the 200th British soldier to be killed in Afghanistan The family of a soldier killed in Afghanistan have contacted police to find out whether their phones were hacked by the News of the World.

Pte Richard Hunt, 21, from Abergavenny, Monmouthshire, was fatally injured in an explosion in August 2009.

His mother Hazel Hunt said the Metropolitan Police could not yet tell her if their phones had been hacked.

Officers told her they are now focused on 2005-07 but will include the period when her son died at a later date.

"I've been in touch with the Met via SSAFA (the Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen and Families Association) and they gave us the numbers of the detectives dealing with it so we could get in contact," said Mrs Hunt.

"They've taken all our land line and mobile numbers."

She said she had been given no indication about how long the investigation would take.

"They've said if anything shows itself they will contact us immediately," she added.

Mrs Hunt said she was disgusted by claims the News of the World may have hacked the phones of families of UK soldiers.

"I will be very, very angry if it has happened but won't be surprised," she said.

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It takes you straight back to when Richard was injured and then died and drags up those feelings again”

End Quote Hazel Hunt "It's almost a betrayal of the boys themselves."

News International closed the News of the World last week amid allegations that the mobile phones of murder victim Milly Dowler and relatives of dead soldiers had been accessed.

Mrs Hunt said the hacking claims and the uncertainty of whether the family had been targeted were very upsetting.

'Prison sentence'

"When you sit there and think about it, it takes you straight back to when Richard was injured and then died, and drags up those feelings again," she said.

"The one thing that would give us piece of mind is that anyone who perpetrated it feels the full force of the justice available.

"That maybe a prison sentence or, if they lose their job, then so be it."

Pte Hunt, of 2nd Battalion Royal Welsh, was the 200th British soldier to be killed while serving in Afghanistan.

He was caught in an explosion while on patrol in Helmand Province and was airlifted back to the UK but died in hospital.

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Fears of wildlife habitat decline

8 July 2011 Last updated at 10:12 GMT The Llangloffan Fen wetland nature reserve near Castlemorris is run by the wildlife trust as a project to create wet heath and fenland Photo: Sarah Moore A report has revealed some significant declines in wildlife in Pembrokeshire over the last 10 years.

It shows that, while there have been some conservation successes, habitats like grasslands and hedgebanks continue to be in decline, as do certain birds.

Last year Wales - along with every other country in the world - missed the target set by the United Nations to halt the decline of biodiversity.

Report author Bethan Cox said there would be a "renewed focus".

Ms Cox, biodiversity officer for Pembrokeshire Biodiversity Partnership, said the aim would be focus on "key habitats" which could be linked up to act as a "buffer" against the effects of climate change.

She said: "Overall we believe that the general health of wildlife in Pembrokeshire is still declining.

"We're trying to look at targets over next 20 years to try and maybe, not halt biodiversity loss but have some key habitats and species where we can halt the loss and also enhance the numbers."

One of those is Llangloffan Fen, a wetland nature reserve near Castlemorris, run by the Wildlife Trust.

Yellowhammer numbers have dropped by half in the last 10 years, the report says

Nathan Walton, the trust's Pembrokeshire officer, said: "These areas are becoming the first ones that tend to be drained and dried up and built on or farmed.

"So we're trying to create more areas of open wetland."

Ms Cox said the report brought together information about species and habitats to provide a "bigger picture" about the wellbeing of Pembrokeshire's biodiversity.

She acknowledged its showed the county had a mixed bag of results.

Targeted work for specialised species, such as pond creation schemes, specific habitat management for rare butterflies and nest box schemes for kestrels had been successful.

Projects such as Managing the Coastal Slopes led by Pembrokeshire Coast National Park's and Pembrokeshire's Living Heathland Project led by the National Trust, had also done well.

But Wales as a whole missed its target to halt biodiversity loss by 2010.

Habitats like grasslands and hedgebanks continue to be in decline, as do certain birds, such as yellowhammers, down by half, and skylarks, down by a third.

'Grassland'

She said: "Over the last 10 years there's been a heathland project run by the National Trust and they've brought 600 hectares of land back to management.

"But then we've got other habitats such as grassland, that we've seen decline. Quite often they are small areas that become neglected and turn to scrub."

The report, the State of Wildlife in Pembrokeshire, was commissioned by the Countryside Council for Wales.

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