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| Shelve Church, Shropshire |
Heather Kidd, the Liberal Democrat leader of Shropshire Council, has spoken to the Powys newspaper County Times about the destruction of natural habitat in her large rural ward.
The Times says a field has been wholly cleared of gorse and scrub, to the dismay of people in Shelve and Pennerley.
Heather Kidd told the newspaper:
"No one seems to know who was responsible," said Councillor Kidd.
"I spoke to the planning department of Shropshire Council and as the site is not an SSSI (Site of Special Scientific Interest) or covered by any other protection, normal enforcement procedures did not apply.
"However, whoever did this overstepped the mark by fencing the whole area off, telling residents to ‘keep out’ as the land is crossed by a statutory public footpath.
"Nobody has the right to this, so I’ve persuaded the countryside department of Shropshire Council to reinstate the public footpath signs so that the public continues to have access across this land. They are also marking this as a right-of-way on the official maps.
"We now need to work with local environmental organisations and societies to see if we can find a way of preventing this sort of destruction in the future."
This saddening news story reminds me of the time I was walking the stretch of Offa's Dyke Path between Hay and Knighton (for a second time, as I had enjoyed it so much the first) and came across a field that was plastered with signs threatening walkers, even though the Path ran through it.
When I reached Knight and the Offa's Dyke Centre a day or two later, I reported the signs. They asked if I could give a map reference – and I could because I had studied for the Map Reader merit badge in the Cubs. I've appreciated the potential radicalism of the Scouting Movement ever since that day.
Anyway, this story at least gives me the excuse to post a photo of what Pevsner calls Shelve's "sweet little rubble-stone church", which dates from 1840.
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