Neighbourhood copse spruced-up

Fourteen of the South Patch team, nearly all the staff of 19, headed in with hedge cutters and mulchers and emerged with huge amounts of fly-tip, brambles, dead shrubs and loose timber.

About seven tonnes of builders’ rubble, garden waste and other fly-tip was loaded on vans and taken to the waste and recycling centre.

Work around Carman Walk ran for five days last week and only stopped near the end of the job when workers found hedgehogs.

Remaining areas will be trimmed in the summer after the hedgehogs have been given opportunity to breed in peace.

Cabinet member for Environment, Sustainability and Climate Change, Councillor Bob Noyce, said: “Well done to the South Patch team for doing a magnificent job to clear the copse, allowing it to be enjoyed to the full again.

“The area had sadly become a dumping ground for fly-tippers but it’s heartening that hedgehogs were able to establish themselves there and that the patch team saw them before we cleared that section.”

Before any major brush and tree works are carried out, team leaders make sure that wildlife won’t be unduly disturbed.

To keep the areas under control, routine visits from ride-on mowers will ensure there is no return to the overgrowth which encouraged fly-tipping and anti-social behaviour.

The council had received many comments from neighbouring residents about the state of the copse, but the difficulties removing fly-tip from thick patches of bramble, weather difficulties and the scale of the effort required meant the work could not be coordinated until now.