Today saw the confirmation of our final victory in the battle to safe our ancient churchyard and its wild life from the Local Authorities scorched earth policy and we are ecstatic. After years of fighting and losing many battles we have at last won the war and the church yard with all its wonderful trees, flowers, insects and birds will now be safe for many years to come. I wept with relief when the plans came through and I saw that from now on the will be no more indiscriminate hacking and slashing of trees or fortnightly mowing and strimming of grass and flowers.
The site will from now on be managed by conservationists instead of council contractors and the locals who have been used to felling the trees to fuel their winter fires have been warned that they face prosecution if they cause any further damage. The icing on the cake is that we have learned that the Bishop has designated the site as one of historic natural importance which means that the churchwardens will no longer be able to “Tidy up” thereby doing damage to the ancient graves and monuments.
I have spent the day passing the word to members of our group and I expect that our next meeting will be a merry one.
Looming on the horizon is our next battle, we are currently attempting to prevent the felling of a large number of healthy trees on the local allotment site. During the past year an entire hedge containing Damsons, sloes, Elderberry and Rowan was poisoned by the local authority with the threat of more such attacks to follow. Most of the allotment holders are organic growers and such practices as this make a nonsense of their efforts to reduce the use of chemicals. Some allotment holders have been threatened with eviction for growing flowers and although there are one or two people who do not cultivate their allotments at all and perhaps should be made to shape up or ship out it is the flower growers who are bearing the brunt of this purge. Of course they grow vegetables as well but they understand the need to attract bees and other insects in to the area.
In my own vegetable garden marigolds, sweet peas and a number of other flowers rub shoulders with tomatoes and leeks, lettuces and beetroot, this is the natural way to grow. It is well known that to grow marigolds amongst tomato plants actively discourages certain pests which are lethal to the plants, we are attempting now to encourage this method of growing for the benefit of all concerned.
So we fight on but just for today we can enjoy our victory and breath a sigh of relief that our beloved birds and beasts are safe at last. I fought alone for some years and was then joined by a wonderful group of people who gave there time and energy willingly and unstintingly to bring about this happy conclusion. If this proves one thing it is that one person can make a difference..if they shout loud enough for long enough but things happen much faster as more people become involved.
If there is any one out there with similar problems to ours I would say to them never give up, be a thorn in the flesh of those who seek to destroy our country side or our precious urban green spaces,. Do not let them treat you like a crank, they are wrong, you are right, believe that and everything is possible.
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