Friday 1 March 2013

What's going on on the Heath?


UPDATE: The Council has now spoken to Redrow and will be going through with them what the want to do and what is allowed under the planning conditions.  We don't know yet if they have actually broken any of them but work will stop until a discussion takes place and they are clear about what they and can't do.
People living on Cressington Heath were shocked to discover a digger on the bit of land that's meant to be maintained (including through their management fees).

The digger was hacking into the ground and damaging trees.  When challenged residents were told that the company doing the work had been paid to remove the trees etc.

It was claimed the Council had told them to do this but many of us smelled a rat.  In fact it turns out that Redrow housing, wanting to hand the management of the site over to a particular company, wanted the trees taken out to "make it easier".  These are silver birches.  They are not diseased, or dangerous.

Anyway, we've (that's me, and  Richard Oglethorpe and residents) have been in touch with planning enforcement and with any luck they'll be able to enforce any conditions on that land to protect the trees if the conditions exist.

It's a mystery to me why those who were meant to be managing the land didn't bother to inform or consult residents. 

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

I really hope they are going to put it back to they way it was, all of the Gorse plats are brilliant for wildlife and they've all gone. We walk around the heath every evening and it was a shock to see everything stripped away. There are lots of birds there, which will go elsewhere if there is nowhere for them to roost. There are also bats there, which i'm sure are protected. If the heath is changed they will not have the trees to live in and the insects to eat. Foxes live there too, surely it's better that they have their dens in the heath rather than finding a way to get into gardens and becoming a pest.
Thanks for keeping us updated on this.