The Gate to Nowhere

. . . Or Heaven's Gate

NO! I haven't cloned out the fence-wires.
This is an access gate through a fence that was put up about 3 years ago without proper consultation. After objections, the fence was removed, but the gates were left in place.

The location is 'The Wild Park', Brighton, Sussex.

Sadly, many locals are poorly informed tree-huggers. Native downland plants and insects are in danger of extinction because traditional grazing pasture has been converted to arable use and other downland has lacked management. sThat has meant natural succession has caused large areas to become encroached by scrub and woodland.

The local council has put in place a scheme to cut back the bushes (which includes much cotoneaster, buddleia and privet) and use sheep to crop the ground to encourage downland grasses and other plants to thrive.

Some of the locals see this as destruction and have put up signs saying:
"No Sheep - Let Nature Return"

I well remember this downland from my youth (50 years ago) when the area had less than half the trees/scrub that it has now. There are only a couple of small areas of vestigial downland left and hopefully, given a chance, the species there will spread back into the newly cleared areas.

If the weather stays fine, I hope to blip some of the autumn downland flowers over the next few days.