This afternoon I visited Gants Hill. The roundabout and central reservations are looking shoddy and overgrown - not a good background for the Olympic Torch which is due to pass through here in July, or for visitors from abroad. Luckily I have a question tabled for Boris at next week's Question Time about the general condition of the A12 during the Games. Meanwhile TfL need to get down here with their strimmers before lions and boa constrictors take up residence in the sprouting jungle...
6 comments:
How funny, just added a photo to my last post featuring a piece of fencing, & remarked how it reminded me of you & your photos of Gants Hill - then look! Anyway, stop banging on about strimmers, as these overgrown patches are good for wildlife, Mr Evans.
Interesting thought Mrs A. The isolated nature of these islands would make them quite difficult for wildlife to reach and once there the critters would be cruelly trapped, left to interbreed amongst the exhaust fumes. In future years curious explorers might find a 21st century version of the Galapagos Islands populated by giant reptiles and finches with oddly shaped beaks...
Or maybe TfL will get around to tidying things up before the Olympic Torch passes through.
Erm, Mr Evans, did you know that insects& birds can fly, and do not necessarily need to use a pelican crossing, even in Gants Hill? Don't be silly. In some areas now, verges are deliberately left uncultivated and wild for ecological reasons. Of course in many Tory authorities this is a pretext for cutting maintenance budgets ...
A large part of the problem is the kind of planting that was put in during the remodelling - is there no-one at TfL who could consult a plant expert and replace the grass and weak shrubs with some tough evergreen vegetation that would only need pruning once a year? Such items do exist!
Mrs Angry writes:
In some areas now, verges are deliberately left uncultivated and wild for ecological reasons.
Yes, Redbridge does this, and particularly the Grassy Knoll at Claybury Broadway, which may 'look' overgrown but is buzzing with bio-diversity and nature's creatures.
But this is TfL ... who can't even install a lift at Newbury Park station without running out of money.
BTW What's happened to the Egg Whisk? It's 2 years now ...
A grassy knoll in Redbridge: Mr Evans, for heavens sake, never travel through the area in an open car. We cannot afford to lose your invaluable contribution to -er, what exactly is it you do? Well, the blogosphere would miss you, anyway.
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