Total Waste of Time

The park now has all sort of volunteer groups including ANTS, Wildlife, Fishing and Friends. The whole scheme is just chaos and these groups dont seem to understand what they are doing is a waste of time. The ANTS have turned up lots of times and done stuff which is a total waste of peoples time. Above they tidied the lodge garden and in the process removed some old rare plants as they have no knowledge. But time and time again they make the same mistakes they cleaned it and thats it as you can see above the weeds are back so all the time they spent cleaning is just a waste of time. They do the same in coronation walk    they tidy it up then never go back for a month or so in which time its its a wilderness again so their time is wasted, the gulf war they planted bushes and left them to die and the border full of weeds.

If they came in every time and just kept 3 areas clean it would stay clean and be improved not revert to a wilderness they could renovate one area and then they could come back and show we have done that as it is when they come back its just wild again as it was before they started. If they are not going to do it properly then leaving it rough for wildlife is a better option.

All these groups are getting out of hand and potentially dangerous along with people from Facebook groups they have resorted to threats and harassment of park users  with people threatening OAP’s not very brave of them if they need to pick on OAP this has been harassment in the internet and physical death threats in the park . There have been several allegation of the wildlife group harassing people in the park and these are women who have visited the park daily for over 6 years feeding the wildlife and now get harassed by  the group. There is still great concern by swan experts  that they are taming the swans and treating them like pets not wildlife hand feeding them with a dog present so they have no fear until one kills them. Even though people who have many years experience of swans  have said they may not survive as they are becoming humanised these people continue to put their lives in danger. All these groups seem to develop a Hitler complex refusing to listen to anyone and harassing them with new laws coming out these troll can get a 2 year prison sentance

A large tree felled by the band stand this week

A grebe back on site and has been around for a week

Autumn Colour in The Queens Park

At this time of the year very little is going on in the park but there is some lovely colours from the trees and the colours change almost daily and well worth a look

Total Madness

Regular reads will remember in the summer that we had a lot of fish dyeing in the lake due to lack of oxygen in the water. Of the last couple of week they have installed aeration devices  and this week on Monday they went live you need at least 6 to full oxygenate the lake but only 2 have been installed no doubt cost several thousand pounds to but fit and install all for the benefit of the fish and fishermen. Above you can see the one near Tipkinder working a treat.

At the other end of the lake were there is fishing we see one floating and not turned on WHY? According to reliable information the reason is the fishermen have complained and dont want it on as it scares the fish. They didnt think to complain before all the money was spent and they were installed! Speaking to several fishermen who fish were they use these they say they are great and the fish love them and it makes for better fishing. As they only went live on Monday they have not even given them a chance to see if if they have any effect.

This is total madness and waste of public money and who do these fishermen think they are?   The groups in the park are getting out of hand as they all think they are Capt Mannering There has been complaints today by lots of people of harassment by the Wildlife group members who are abusing people who feed the wildlife they are described as little Hitlers and all the groups have the same attitude. The Wildlife group are to plant on the islands but the correct way to do this is to analyse the soil before you start to test for PH etc before you can choose suitable plants but the yare not doing any of this and will they know how far apart to put plants to match growth height etc  

Before and after renovations

Sunday saw the park full of bike of every size age and type from penny farthings to modern bikes, Dr bike was there doing free repairs for all bikes

 

After over 5 years and 7 million pounds of renovation parts of the park are still a tip. Its been that long people wont remember what it used to be like above is Coronation Walk today un kept and full of weeds and no water fall. Below is how nice it used to look before they started renovating it which is better? The park is being destroyed and made worse than ever

Wildlife habitat destroyed by the ANTS

A new ram has gone in on the island at the bottom of the lake so the moorhen's can get on to the island with their young. For  along time they nest by the little bridge in the bamboo along with rabbits but this has all been destroyed by the ANTS cleaning it up. Its in borders so cant go far and it doesnt grow to big but they saw fit to totally destroy it. in the same area there are 10 self seeded trees that want pulling out and the borders with bushes are full of weeds but they have left them. The whole problem is people come into the park think they are doing good but in fact they are destroying it. They removed very old plants form the lodge garden that were rare totally wiping them out. The groups in the park dont have a master plan to work to and just step on others toes due to lack of communication.  The ANTS put up bird boxes many in the wrong place facing the wrong way as they dont know what birds go into which area they dont know what box to put were and put them facing to wrong way the chicks can get to hot if in direct sunlight.

Would you take your car to a garage that let untrained volunteers repair it no you wouldnt as they could wreck the car in the same way these people know very little about gardening and wildlife and just destroy everything. What is needed is groups to work together and to get trained supervision of these events. In the same way the wildlife group are feeding the swans in the wrong way and they could suffer as they are now to use to humans and when they leave they may well suffer as they seek out humans all of which arnt nice people  

Autumn is on its way

One of the first trees to change with the onset of Autumn is this one in the park and its started changing colour and dropping leave so its on its way you do get some nice colours over the next few week as the trees change

Two new power box have gone in this week by the lake ready for the new aeration scheme to  pump oxygen into the water as the fish were dying due to lake of oxygen they will float on the surface and be like mini fountains and have to be anchored down or the spin out of control. This should have been done as part of the restoration but wasnt done

A few Robins are collecting in the park just like Xmas. The cygnet no3 has been returned this week from the RSPCA after it had the fishing line in its mouth. The swans are now learning to flap their wings and normally the parents will chase them off but as dad is alone its more likely they will stay and dad will go and find a new mate return and then drive them off

More Cygnets hooked in fishing line

Last week saw 2 cygnets and a duck caught in fishing line the picture above show what came from one cygnets mouth and the duck is now in Stapley. So despite everyone best efforts this is not working. The problem is that people are going down all day feeding the swans which is good but its how you feed them that is causing the problems. They are now so tame they eat out of anyone's hand and this how they are being fed. People are doing this out of ignorance and think its very good but swans are wild life not pets. As they are so used to humans they think this is how they get food so they see fishermen and head over for food and as a result get caught in line. No Canada gees have been hooked as they are not hand fed.

This presents another problem its ok for the duck, squirrels etc to get very used to humans as they often stay in the park for life  but swans the father will sooner or later drive them away and they will leave and find new homes but believing food will come from humans so they will go to any one and of coarse some people arnt nice and may catch them for dinner or get hooked in more fishing line.

The problem is the hand feeding this must now stop they can be fed from the bridge or have food placed on the ground for them but humans must back off so they find food by natural foraging if this doesn't happen they will leave and be unable to survive in the wild. Problem is people now wont see that and they will eventually suffer as a result. All wildlife sanctuaries try to keep human contact to the minimum if creature are to return to the wild

above the power supply for the lake aeration is now in and this will bring more oxygen to the lake for fish wildlife etc  as fish have been dying due to lack of oxygen it was part of the original plan along with plants to help but never got done

Deadly Path Made Safe?

After last weeks report of the deadly path the Chronicle also ran the story this week with picture and low and behold a gang of workmen appeared and created a new feature a mud wrestling ring and closed the path. But at least its responsible sae now. The council claimed it was down to fly tipping but as I witness back in may the council do it this wasnt the case, it sad that you have to get press coverage to get things made safe when it was so clearly deadly

The cygnets have been ringed this week and we have 2 boys 2 girls and one they dont know. The one from Stapley injured by fishing line  will be released soon they hope but cant return to the park as father may drive it off

A ramp has gone in on the island so wildlife can then get back on the island with their young as it was once they left the island young couldnt get back and were in danger,

The swans are growing well now and dad is still looking after them well

Could You be KILLED in the Queens Park

Above is a lethal death trap in the park for  a long time the path at the end of the lake by the golf coarse has been very bad as its very narrow and slippery on one side is the lake and the other is a trench left by the restoration which for ages has been full of dirty stagnant water so either way you fell you would have got wet. But then the council decided to create a death trap and dumped a load of rubbish in the trench turning a wet pool into something lethal. click on the picture and take a close look at the metal very sharp rusty and just right to kill you. If you fall onto that your dead or very seriously injured. If that doesn't get you then there are bricks concrete slabs and other nasty's to crack your head open. The council have left it like this  and created the problem them selves. How can anyone say this complies with Health and Safety laws there can be no argument its deadly and they have done nothing about it the person who instructed this to be done could be criminally liable. Even though they know about this nothing has been done when anyone dies or get hurt they can come on this site for photographic evidence of the CEC H&S failings and win a compensation claim

The clock tower has had its 3rd renovation with new finials' this week the colour doesn't match but will fade in time

 

A new sign this week by the bandstand with a map and local details of the walks available locally part of the Sustrans project

The cygnets are doing well with no more fishing problems and are growing well the only real danger to them now comes from humans and fishing. The cygnet in Stapley may be able to come back in a couple of weeks lets hope it doesnt get driven off