Suffering

Is what I've been doing, with no more birding than can be done out the window or on my daily staggers [gentle exercise and fresh air is good for plague, they say].

A couple of bits of good news - today the first Blue Tits came into the Garden since Them Over There hacked their garden to bits. It was a dive in, grab a sunflower seed, and dive out affair, but better than nothing. Also, on my afternoon stagger, I managed to see a Hobby! It was passing through north - a Herring Gull tried to mob it but was effortlessly outpaced... :)

Less good news now, and here comes a rant.

Do you remember the Firecrest from last winter? The one by Babbacombe Theatre, that showed so wonderfully once and then was a right little git? Well, I watched it from a path, which connects the Downs [of Evil Developer Tried To Build a Fish Restaurant All Over It But Was Defeated fame] to Glen Sannox [of Shouldn't That Name Be Sent Back To Scotland? fame].
On yesterday's stagger, I found this path blocked, with signs saying it was closed due to 'Health and Safety'. Turns out Torbay Council in their utter stupidity brainless arrogance devious attempts to line the pockets of their friends in construction wisdom have decided to permanently destroy this public right of way, due to 'antisocial behaviour' which apparently has happened on it.

Yes, really. There's an article [of sorts] on the wonderful 'thisissouthdevon' website about it.

Its like saying, "Oh, people have driven too fast along this road, let's wall it off!" They're going to build a wall and a fence and fell 'a number' of perfectly healthy trees as a barrier to stop people going to the old viewpoint where these terrible crimes have happened. Am I the only one who thinks this is unreasonable?

Why not just report this law-breaking to the Police? Enough reports and they have to send patrols along there, and nobody with even a brain addled by crack will want to try anything illegal, because once they're at the viewpoint they can't see who's coming...

Better yet, why not improve the path? There are some uneven steps, and it gets very muddy, so fixing said steps and putting a better surface down [plus maybe a sign at each end?] will drastically raise the footfall and again deter these 'undesirables'.

I now come to a shameless appeal;
If any of you live in the St. Marychurch ward, please contact your councillors and give them hell over this. Point out that there are many better cheaper options, speculate that it could be seen as the first part of an attempt to sell the Theatre to a certain food entrepreneur, ask why the Police haven't acted if this is such a problem...



Thank you for putting up with that. :)