Could I be dreaming? Double and treble takes much in evidence as we drove up to the Stony Ridge car park. Having spent a lot of time railing against the senseless destruction of perfectly good trees, we arrived to find a battalion of tree surgeons armed to the teeth filling and overflowing what is now the only car park for this side of Blacka. Something on the scale of an arboricultural genocide seemed to be in prospect. Could this be a punishment for Blacka daring to be too wild and too beautiful for the world of the modern manager?The man in charge told me that they were there to clear trees that were causing problems with the overhead electricity cable that (unfortunately) straddles Blacka. Responding to my concern he insisted that they were only going to clear small birch. When have I heard that before?
The scale of the overkill sends one staggering. There were eight, (EIGHT!) trucks all ready for action like tanks in a war zone, each with several men inside and the engines running. As the camera clicked another one arrived this time a huge 4X4.
What is it about our dear beloved Blacka Moor that attracts such disproportionate contracted operations? And why this industrial scale? And is this the reason our fuel bills are so high?
Postscript (Tuesday)
A fresh fall of snow, and therefore heavy going underfoot, prevented any investigation this morning of what the invaders got up to. The snow anyway will have covered their tracks. Perhaps they went home and decided to return in more suitable weather. Perhaps the reason for there being so many of them was the problem of finding work for a large body of men on a certain day. We'll look again when walking is easier.
6 comments:
Why was this not mentioned at the recent RAG meeting? Surely SWT must have been aware?
Sounds horrible. Who will have sanctioned this?
Utility companies are renown for doing this sort of thing, and indeed they are legally entitled to do it, in order to maintain, protect and/or safeguard their infrastructure.
In theory, they are supposed to inform landowners and/or land managers / tenants prior to works taking place (but note: this does not generally involve consultation on what they will do, or when/how they will do it), but often, they make little effort to get this right - partly, I think, because they know they have a legal right to carry out the works irrspective of what a tenant or owner might think or say.
In this particular case, SWT may have been informed (as is technically required), but if we were, it is likely to have been last minute and in cursory fashion, and I think it most unlikely that it would have bee prior to the last RAG. I will check this with John Paul Ward.
It seems likely to me that SWT was not notified on this occasion, as often there is a presumption that publicly owned land is fair game for last minute formal notification to a regular contact at a public agency (in this case, at Sheffield Council). It is quite possible that SCC was notified, and the utility company in question didn't even know that SWT holds a lease on the land. It's also quite possible that they notified someone at the Council who has little or nothing to do with the day to day issues at Blacka Moor, and that the communication got stuck there.
Certainly, there is nothing that SWT could have done to prevent or significantly influence this, much as we may have wished to.
In case anyone is interested, I have now discussed this with John Paul Ward (SWT's Nature Reserve Manager while Annabelle Kennedy is away on maternity leave), and he tells me that someone from the electricity company did contact us a while ago, saying that they would be wanting to gain access at some point to carry out some tree works along the route of the powerlines (as they have done about every ten years in the past), but he left it at that, and agreed to notify SWT nearer the time with details, once these were finalised (so that we could inform the public, work with them to agree ways of minimising intrusion, etc).
As I suspected (see my last comment), the power company then failed to tell us any more and went ahead with the works without SWT's knowledge. The first our staff team knew about this was a report from a member of the public that it had already happened. John Paul will be registering a formal complaint with the power company.
As I said, this is not an uncommon occurrence.
I contacted the sub-contractors who carried out the work and they confirmed that permission was obtained and discussed with a Warden of Sheffield Wildlife Trust prior to work starting.
As SWT admit to this contact being "a while ago" that would seem to put the discussion & permission prior to the date of the last RAG meeting. Again I pose the question why was it not then discussed, particularly as Tree Cutting was a specific agenda item and planned future works on Blacka were brought to the attention of the meeting?
I agree with Craig. We should be told everything that's relevant to Blacka at the RAG meetings. We've taken trouble to attend meetings and .... well I could go on.
But Nigel, if you're still there, what about starting a campaign to get rid of the power lines? It may take years, even generations, but you have to start somewhere.
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