Last month Paul Phillips (Ecology and Sustainability Officer for Rushcliffe Borough Council) agreed with Nottinghamshire County Council Rights of Way a specification for a boardwalk to be constructed over the badger setts at the northern end of the Central Path in the wood. (This is public footpath FP30). He contracted EMEC Ecology to build the boardwalk and this has now been completed.
This will mean that the collapsed footpath is safe for visitors and that disturbance to the badgers through visitors straying from the path is minimised. This the solution favoured by the Friends; the alternative was to divert the footpath a considerable distance in order to completely bypass the badger workings.
(Postscript, 26/8/22: At the site visit last Tuesday a passing dog walker queried why this boardwalk had been introduced, implying that it wasn’t necessary. It is important to realise that the Friends, though we expressed a preferred solution, were not instrumental in the decision to construct a boardwalk. This was down to the wood’s owners, Rushcliffe Borough Council, and the Rights of Way people – who would have been liable in the event of injury to a member of the public.)
