Thank you for your comments on the matter, we will see what happens on Tuesday when they are all back at work opening the emails they have been sent. If you're not happy with all this then please lend your support and mail them.
LWT ruined an aquatic habitat at Withnell Fold that held a large variety of water life, 'cleaning' it up, installing decking as a pond dipping platform. The kingfishers have never been seen since. You do wonder at the efficacy of this organisation.
Unfortunately LWT seem very good at this,doing work without consulting local birders.One example was several years ago when they flooded an area of Chat Moss that destroyed a roost site of up to 35 Jack Snipe.
Firstly, organisations in the county seem to work without much, if any, consultation or discussion between them prior to work being undertaken. This is a real shame and is missing a good opportunity to obtain views or important information from all sides (including local observers who may have covered patches for many years yet get ignored) before work starts and in these days of fairly instant communication it wouldn't take much. Some potentially serious issues could be avoided by this simple circulation of plans and proposals and whilst I realise all too well that often too many views can cloud issues and delay work, this can be avoided with simple and concise dialogue and a framework for it to be voiced. Indeed, such a potential problem with the recent works at Pennington Flash could have been completely avoided if consultation between official groups in the county had been undertaken. Hopefully, no harm was done in this instance but what of next time? We really need to be working together with a common aim, when all to often organisations seem to be working in isolation, possibly to protect their own kudos a lot of the time.
As for the campaign for a volunteer group at the flash, I think you have a very good right to be disgruntled David. I have been nothing but absolutely impressed by the work the Leigh Ornithological Society's Volunteer Group has done on site, making improvements to parts of the flash that make it look better than I can remember, not only via habitat management but also with less appreciated but equally important work like litter picking. All I can say there really is that the work your group does is very much appreciated, by human users of the site and I don't doubt by its wildlife too, and without it the site would be in a much worse condition for sure.
There's a big job broken out at Pennington through LWT, which i did know about by simple conversation with Graham Workman (IHLS) 12 or more months ago, since then nothing until contractors for LWT turned up two weeks ago at the start / into the breeding season. That's a surprise for so-called enlightened specialists. Mark Champion (LWT) has offered to have a chat with me about it, but what's the point now. (i have phoned him he was not answering at the time, I will try again)
On another matter, this week sees a campaign by the council to get a volunteer group started at Pennington, they don't seem to know there is a thriving well-supported group existing already yet they have given permission to work, finance and equipment to and had meetings with us.
What's behind this? I would welcome your thoughts on this, am i missing something that is obvious to all but me.
