Lorries galore on the land mass up by Cormorant lake (north) 5th May 2021

No site visit this week. It is tipping it down, and we have a prior engagement tomorrow.

Inert have done it to me again. I commented that restoration would proceed slowly for a couple or three weeks or months, seeing as they were working around the pump station with one just lorry last week. Well, on the day I visited, that is. Tuesday's stomp revealed upward of ten tipper lorries (reliable John Stacey) trundling over the land mass up to the north shore of Cormorant lake (south).

I estimate that upwards of 3000 tons of spoil are dumped on the site each day, if five 18 ton tipper lorries make 4 round trips for 8 working hours.

It was hard for me to gauge how many tipper lorries were operating on Tuesday (I spent most of my site visit explaining to a walker what was happening on Manor farm), but I estimate anywhere between 6 an 10. The site was very busy indeed, more so when the tractor/water bowser joined.

What were Inert up to? It was difficult to tell from the south footpath, and impossible with no site visit. However, from what I saw three weeks ago, Inert are continuing to fill in the last remaining bit of water between the land mass and the gravel causeway separating Cormorant lakes north and south. Judging by how the bulldozer disappeared behind birch trees, when viewed on the south footpath between the sewage works and the copse, I'd say the infill is continuing further eastward, and almost right up to the gravel causeway.

I'm not sure how long this current level of activity will last. Normally a week or two, before restoration proceeds at a leisurely pace, but it is looking good for a high level of completion by the end of this year.  Makes sense to me to get this completed as soon as possible. This will allow Cemex to then concentrate on what it is good at i.e. extracting stuff out of the ground, rather than putting stuff in.

I didn't actually wander down the pump station (spent too much time explaining matters to the dog walker) so I didn't see the extent of the latest spoil heap that inert were building last week.

As usual, the nesting birds and other animals were totally ignoring the lorries, bulldozers, tractors, bowser, digger etc trundling around the site. The animals stayed on the old Finch pond side of Manor farm. There were two breeding groups of Roe deer, munching away quite relaxed. While the nesting Lapwings were zooming around Finch pond, either showing off (i.e. territorial displays) or seeing off any intruding, over flying large birds e.g. Carrion Crows!

Before the slide show, a new map (I do spoil you) of my estimate of the extent of infill in Cormorant lake (north). What this map, on the latest satellite image from google that I have, doesn't show is where Inert have been building up the level of the land. Their modus operandi is to push spoil into a lake to quite an extent, and then build up the height of the land behind that infill.

Cormorant lake (north) will not require a whole lot of infill as it isn't very deep. Thus there is only a tiny bit of Cormorant lake (south) to infill, before a whole lot of this lake is dug out to extend Manor lake all the way west to the copse.