A sadly poor shot of a Muppet chatting unconcerned to his mate on a bench on the west embankment
Wade with me, if you will, into the shallow end of the gene pool…
Chasewater is a site of special scientific interest, or SSI. It contains rare and fragile species of many plants, birds and animals, which are preserved there for the public to enjoy. The park is crossed by many tracks, and is part of the National Cycle Network. Unfortunately, these tracks attract the off road use of motorcycles and quads. Not only is this damaging to the flora and fauna, it’s an antisocial practice indulged in by morons.There really is no other adequate description of these people who are willfully damaging a place of beauty.
Finally braving the weather today, I thought I’d take advantage of the lack of people to see if I could get some bird photos… fat chance. The lull seemed to be filled by moronicus motorcyclus in its’ various forms. These three pictures were taken in the space of about 5-10 minutes.
- This example headed up the West embankment. Shiny new bike, shame about the lack of consideration for others…
- This defies belief – circling the newly-accessible island, where birds usually nest, on a shiny new scrambler, togged out in full leathers, but without the wit to scramble somewhere legal…
The photo above demands further comment – this is a young lad on an expensive scrambler, apparently accompanied by an adult; somebody has bought him all the right gear, too – yet he was riding on the sands around the island on the west shoreline, which is now accessible due to the low water level. The island , normally isolated, forms home to many nesting birds who can usually nest there undisturbed. In the foreground is a notice erected by the ranger team warning park users to take care around young birds.
Surely, if you can afford all that gear you can afford to take it somewhere where scrambling is legal, rather than destroy your local nature reserve? If these prats hit a pedestrian, they’ll not be insured… but then, they don’t care, just as they don’t care for their environment.
I hope they get nicked, I really do.
Bob, I hope more local people catch on to your blog.
I doubt very much they will get pinched, and it begs the question as to where they get the money to be able to afford such gear.
Regards Pedro
Surely a quick email to WMP with BX09 LVN would help?
If it’s any indicator, a couple of years ago they were a constant pain near here. One resident of this street put a flyer through every door urging people to phone the police (which I’d been doing anyway). It took about 2 weeks, and a couple of arrests to stop it.
Bob
Somewhere on your blog I remember reading about the water levels on Chasewater, and of course the illegal riding of motor bikes. On uploading some pictures onto Panoramio and reading about the SSSI I came across this article from the Chasewater Wildlife Group.
We are, however, finding this extremely difficult as it would appear that there is no one person – or one organisation – that has overall control of what happens at Chasewater…
You may have already come across this but it may be of interest to your readers
http://www.chasewater.org.uk/conflicts.htm
Regards Pedro
Hi Pedro
Yeah, I link to CWG on the sidebar —->
I like what they do, and read their diary every few days, it’s surely fascinating. I don’t agree with everything they write, however; I obviously sympathise with their views on the damage and vandalism, but I do think people belong at Chasewater and that it probably wouldn’t be the haven for wildlife that it is now without the interest of the people that visit it – yeah, some are inconsiderate, dog walkers can be a pain, but the railway, for instance, and the visitors centre and Cafe are all important facilities that keep people coming to the park, and any exposure to the outdoors and wildlife can only be a good thing. I sense there’s some antagonism in their approach to the council. I can understand that, but irascibility alone won’t get things done…
Thanks for your interest. Bit of a grim day when you visited, eh?
Bob