There were only three of us today in fine weather for this additional work party to replace the cancelled September one. It was most disappointing that we had to spend the entire morning dealing with matters arising from anti-social behaviour, rather than getting on with habitat or infrastructure work. Digging in the north-east sector of the wood had constructed humps and depressions, presumed to be for BMX biking. Some of the bumps were re-enforced with timber, which may have been taken from path edging. We levelled these out and removed excess timber. There was a lot of litter at the northern end, including two super-market trollies as well as chipboard panels, expanded polystyrene, an office chair, a smaller plastic chair and many smaller items. We also found parts of a broken spade, probably used for making the humps. There was too much to carry down, so we left it near the northern entrance and asked Streetwise to collect it. Finally, there was a strange “cradle” about 2 metres diameter comprising lengths of timber bound together with sticky tape. It turns out this was a den, kindly dismantled by a visiting school. The tape was presumably not biodegradable and would have stayed around long after the wood had rotted. We removed the tape and stacked all the timber.
