The Council Tyranny continues…
Finally, after 3 months following the complete closure of the woods and pathways at Hurstwood, we have had something resembling an official response from the Havant Borough Council’s (HBC) Deputy Chief Exec via Suella Braverman’s office. The first point of note is the response comes from a position well elevated from the admin of the Land Services dept who have up until now been providing auto generated cut and paste responses to email enquiries about the closure. This, I guess is in no part to the intervention of Suella Braverman who visited the site recently and asked for a response from the council on why nothing was being done.
Now I should state that I’m certainly no fan of Suella’s politics or her party, but if her influence forces a favourable result here, I’d be first in the line to congratulate her.
Sadly it’s the same old authoritarian guff from Patrick Lee who’s taken nearly 2 months to answer an official request from a sitting MP for the constituency. If that doesn’t scream of self importance, I don’t know what does.
Let’s look at that response:
It starts with the usual 2 paragraph pre-amble stating what we already know followed by an assertion that work is ongoing. It’s been 3 months guys….and despite living practically on the site, I’ve seen no-one resembling a tree surgeon or an ecologist. Suella has even visited in that time…She’d have done twice as much work as the council if she had brought a set of secateurs.
I’ve lived here (almost in the woods) for 23 years and I’ve known about ash die back throughout all that time. The diseased ash trees were self evident, failing to sprout leaves in the spring and the dead branches would regularly drop to the ground once the winds of autumn came. The Council would regularly employ tree surgeons to take out the diseased trees and not even a barrier was erected. Local residents had the good sense to give the workers a wide berth and let them get on with their works.
Suddenly we find ourselves in a situation where a complete lock down is necessary.. We also find ourselves needing, ecology surveys, wildlife surveys, forensic analysis and 50 page report of the habitat and breeding activities of badgers, bats, door mice and anything else with 4 legs or wings that might turn a molehill into a very large mountain. Maybe Havant Borough Council are angling for an ecology award for sustainable green space management, or perhaps a permanent residency of Chris Packham with the entire Nature watch team. And of course we are paying for all of it…through the nose.
At which point in the last 20 years did the diversity of the site change?. All this wildlife has always been here. Only this morning a pair of deer walked across my path in broad daylight. We have always had foxes, squirrels, every imaginable indigenous species of bird… None of this has any relevance to the simple task of stripping out a few dead trees which has been successfully done for decades.
He concludes that the site ‘must remain closed for pubic safety’, a classic textbook line from the manual of authoritarian control, with no basis in evidence and ignoring every possible second order consequence;
What is more risky, a member of the public being hit by a falling branch? or pedestrians/ cyclists being hit by motorists on the nearby Tempest Av because they can no longer get to work or school using the Public footpath?
If you are struggling to stay with me this far, the TLDR (too long, didn’t read) appears to be we are going to spend tens of thousands of pounds of your council tax, making a simple job into a really, really, big and complicated one.
As it stands the local residents have given up with this nonsense. The barriers are breached multiple times every day, sometimes violently so. The council employs a local contractor to close the barriers, 3 times a week and he sends a photo the council to prove his pointless diligence. Within minutes, they are open again.
We’ve already been threatened with heavy duty concreted in gates…although I think they are going to run into some issues with permissions and damaging people’s neighbouring property. There are also hundreds of neighbouring properties with rear access from their gardens direct to the area… Good luck fencing that off…
Is it only a matter of time before they turn up with the razor wire and watchtowers… ? Nothing would surprise me…
How have we got here? I just want to be able to walk my dog and enjoy this beautiful area in peace… But these bureaucratic zealots thrive, both on wasting taxpayers money, and making people’s lives more difficult.
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