From this....

...to this!

Courtesy of someone from the council!

The area around the pond just up the road has an annual management plan contracted to preserve and enhance this little corner of paradise. There great crested newts here along with thousands of frogs that spawn here each year as well as all the other wildlife that congregates here too.

Part of the conservation plan (this is the councils own plan) is to cut just paths around the area during the summer months allowing the grasses and flowers ti grow to their fullest extent and then seed. My blip from Thursday was taken here. When the grasses are six feet high it is a lovely sight. I have counted at least fourteen different types of grass in this one area.

Late this week the council contractors came and scythed down half the wonderful grasses, cow parsley and other flowers. It should have been left until the first week of September as per the plan. They also did this two years ago cutting down two thirds before they were stopped.

Half of our little haven has been turned into an arid area of dried grass that is neither pretty to look at nor use to anyone. Thanks Nuneaton and Bedworth Borough Council. Your efforts are really not appreciated.


Amongst this area was a group of bushes that was home to numerous hedgehogs. Last year the top was cut down to knee height allowing light right into their little hideaway. The hedgehogs have apparently not been since.

The quality and timeliness of their intervention is reflected in this years attempts to dredge the pond. Previously, interested conservationists came along in chest high waders and and spent half a day clearing the bull rushes that overgrow the centre of the pond. Last winter, the pond dried out entirely and grass grew right across it. Fortunately, it filled up again and but, the rushes are again strangling the pond.

Our wonderful local council representative claimed all the honours for getting the pond dredged again earlier this year - just before council elections : any coincidence? It was also done when the pond was full of frog spawn. Nice timing.

This clearing out consisted of using a JCB and hauling out about ten buckets of mud and rushes from the edge of the pond and dumping them a few feet away. In the course of doing so, the JCB left deep tracks right across the whole area and also left dozens of foot deep holes where the JCBs hydraulic stabilising rams sunk deep into the mud and ground around the pond. These were lethal to anyone and their dogs walking around the pond who didn't see them. Nothing has been achieved at the centre of the pond where the problem is. The so called dredging has simply moved the perimeter of the pond out and spread the rushes wider. This so called cleaning up would have lasted thirty minutes or so.

If either of these interventions is the quality of the councils conservation measures - we are better off without them. Please STOP!

Please mend the holes in the pavements and stop making holes where they are not needed. You are just wasting our precious council tax.

Yours, annoyed of Nuneaton!

My blipping may be rather interrupted over coming weeks. A family crisis is causing lots of stress and heart ache. Gail has and will be doing lots of miles over coming weeks to be where she is needed. I'm picking up lots of not all of normal essential everyday stuff as a consequence. My time is going to be severely limited for a while at least while I focus on the running of family and home and providing a long distance shoulder.

My blips have suffered already over the last couple of weeks. Better to miss some I'm afraid.