THIS weekend, thousands of people will make their way to the nearest garden centre, with the aim of bringing more colour into their lives.

Many will pick up a bag of peat compost without thinking twice about it.

Sadly, they will be helping to destroy a precious habitat.

Lowland peat bogs were once common across the North West of England.

Back in 1830 the engineer George Stephenson famously had to 'float' his pioneering Liverpool and Manchester railway over the notorious Chat Moss.

As elsewhere, most of it has now been drained.

Last month I visited one of the very last lowland peat bogs in our region, Wedholme Flow in Cumbria.

From a distance it looked solid enough, but the experts with me from English Nature said that it is mostly water.

The Royal Society for the Protection of Birds says that 95 per cent of these precious lowland bogs have been lost, yet the destruction continues.

With the growing popularity of gardening, the use of peat has increased by half in the past four years alone.

So if you are visiting a garden centre, please look at the labels carefully and insist on buying only peat-free materials.

Chris Davies

Liberal Democrat MEP for the North West