Clearing the river bank

We took a break from life at home around lunchtime today.  I'd suggested taking Helena up the Frome valley so she could look for suitable subjects for a 'Derelict Thursday' challenge.  She mentioned a place she had spotted close to the confluence of the Toadsmoor Brook and the River Frome so that is where we started.  But the mill we found was only partly decrepit, and really was unkempt, with much of it still being used.  I took a few pictures of sad brickwork, broken gutters and smashed window panes but I hoped for better things.  

We drove under the road bridge beside the mill towards the main river and there came across a spartan landscape where the trees had been ripped down and the scrubby land between sections of the river and canal were all bare.  I got out of the car and shouted out to the man cutting with the chainsaw, who was a bit reluctant at first, if he minded me taking a picture. Eventually he gave me permission.  It seems that local people are upset that the trees are coming down, even thought they are only species which invade uncared for ground.  The site has been granted building permission for a lot of houses which is what the Local Plan wants.  These brown field sites close to old engineering works are where housing is hoped for rather than on the green fields which developers usually choose, since they are much easier to work on.

The digger is lifting the main limb of the tree to try and break the trunk so that the wood can be cleared. In a few months this whole area will look completely different.  My concern is that this is definitely a flood plain so that new housing, must be elevated and not be liable to inundation from the floods which are sure to come.