Gardeners have duty to avoid using peat

It is outrageous that the Somerset Peat Producers' Association(SPPA) should put in a plea to be treated as a special case and beallowed to extract peat beyond 2030 ("Group challenges Defra's planto reduce peat use to zero by 2030", article June 23).

Their claim that the peat lands around Meare, Sharpham andWesthay are archaic and of little value ignores the fact that theycontinue to represent an enormous carbon sink. The 24 hectares atCradlebridge Sharpham, which Somerset County Council amazingly gavepermission to dig in 2010, despite a previous appeal being rejectedby an independent adjudicator, will release an estimated 300,000tonnes of CO2 (Defra's …