I'm back! Inert/Cemex have been back for some time. 5th September 2020

I'm not sure when precisely Inert and Cemex returned to their restoration of Manor farm.  Their usual breeding season hiatus (normally end of march to mid-July) was slightly extended by the ridiculous full national covid-19 lockdown. Seriously, face masks and social distancing would have been sufficient to bring transmission rate down.

Anyway, enough of the deficiencies of bumbling Boris and his bunch of bungling buffoons.  I suspect that Inert returned sometime in July.  I did pop around the south footpath on the 31st May, and noticed no activity what so ever, on both Chandlers farm and Manor farm. Though some large mesh barriers were set up across the bailey bridge and Manor farm track.

I didn't do a Wednesday stomp. Instead we did a 9 mile hike with some friends on Tuesday, taking in MGL, Manor farm and Fleet Hill farm en route, which is when I noticed that Inert were back.

Inert have been concentrating on completing the infill of Cormorant lake (south). They have covered an impressive amount of the north west shore with an impressive amount of spoil, some 1 metre deep.  This is all the more impressive seeing as once agin the lorries are queuing along the vehicle track.  I only saw some three lorries queuing on Tuesday. A far cry from the 10 lorry jam I have witnessed. But I am still puzzled as to why, given all the space they have, Inert still insist on single track road, which causes lorries to queue.

Lorry drivers are being paid an awful lot of money to sit their, twiddling their thumbs.

The pump was not working, and subsequently water levels were very high. Basically where they should be.  I was quite surprised that work was progressing with water levels being so high, but did notice that the spoil wasn't actually being pushed into Cormorant lake (south). Perhaps this is why Inert were happy to have water levels so high.

Also, I didn't see our bulldozer trundling around. There was a single digger working away.  Perhaps this is a one off, and our bulldozer driver will be back.

Oh, Inert have cut a nice deep drainage channel between what is left of Finch pond and Cormorant lake (south), so draining a lot of the former pond.

The west and north embankments and ridge appear to have had their annual trim. All that nasty tall nettles and thistles have been cut down, making it easier for me to trek along.

Well, that's it for this week. I really thought that Cemex would use covid-19 as an excuse to suspend restoration work. Apparently not, it would seem. Fingers crossed, we could see work completed on Cormorant lake by next spring.