Cotton Socks
Skint Supporter
- Feb 20, 2017
- 2,527
The council know about it. It was done due to 'ash die back'. They've done Withdean Park, Hollingbury & Burstead Woods, Wild Park & Stanmer Park. No need to get a licence apparently as they were 'urgent' works.
There ended up being a public meeting about it when people realised they weren't just cutting down a 'few' & the state all the woods have been left in. The council basically 'soz, we had no choice, the wood money has only been used to pay the contractors & all the healthy trees had to be cut down to get the machinery in'.
They are apparently using some money from somewhere to plant new trees (they won't). The park ranger said last year to leave fruit cores on the ground to see if anything grows!
The council also said they were doing regular checks & as much as possible the area will be 'made good'. At the top part of Wild Park there are wood piles everywhere. They're numbered & there were around 50, there's still around 50 nearly 2 months on and as you say, loads in Stanmer.
I can't see it being used for anything like Race For Life. The ruts are dangerous & the council are more likely to get sued as someone as broken their ankle rather than the chance of a tree branch falling on someone. Branches do come off of trees there when it's windy as it's woodland it's kind of expected. The area of woodland where the branches often fall are in the part where all the trees are in straight lines. They've not been touched.
Most of the mountain bike trails have been destroyed. I'm proud to say that throughout the winter we have been trying to keep one clear so that it was still visible & could still be used, we even put in a small diversion by treading down the mud everyday. I should sue the council for boot damage, it appears that if you spend too much time kicking leaves the bottom will fall off the boot!
I know some people don't like the cyclists but over the years they've created really nice pathways off the main ones. Ironically this time of year a lot of people walk on them to look at the bluebells properly & then moan at cyclists. No I don't cycle, last time I tried to ride around Stanmer on the main paths I was too knackered to cycle back up to Upper Lodges & got picked up at Lower Lodges!
