New pump installed to drain the Main reed beds. Flattening continues. 30th September 2022

Well folks, I actually paid a site visit on a gloriously sunny Wednesday morning. I've only just got around to the write up due to other more important activities i.e. painting walls.

Seismic shocks from Crazy Kwarteng's lunatic mini-budget, and Loony Liz's even dafter comments and 'non-response' continue to reverberate. Sterling swallow dived to $1.03/£ its lowest ever. Stocks (ftse 100 and 250) are in a tailspin. Whilst the BoE had an emergency response to buy £65bn in bonds to stop a catastrophic collapse in pensions. Don't ya just love idiot ideological politicians - not.

Anway, enough of inept politicians. What of our all important restoration.

Inert are still cracking on, albeit a bit more slowly, it would seem.

The eastern North Embankment continues to be flattened. I thought it would take two weeks. However, now I reckon three weeks. Principally because Inert are only using two heavy earth movers. They are shipping the topsoil to Chandlers farm, which takes about 10 minutes. This means that the digger operator spends a great deal of time twiddling his thumbs, waiting for the heavy earth movers to return.

Inert installed a pump on the new banking separating the Main reed beds from Manor lake. The pump is needed to empty water from the Main Reed beds. Bit of bad planning here, folks, as the existing, venerable old pump, which Inert removed last week, could have pumped out the main Reed beds.

My initial thought was, why didn't Inert install sluice gates into the banking - as per plans. These could drain the Main Reed bed. On reflection, I decided that sluice gates would not be designed to completely drain this area of a nature reserve. Inert obviously need to operate in the Main reed bed to construct it. Driving in a few feet of water, with deep mud, is not a great idea. Hence the need for a pump - expensive though it may be.

There are signs that Inert have also been working on the 'plateau' adjoining the former location of the pump station. They appear to be digging out large quantities of stuff from this area, presumably to form Manor lake. I did wonder why so much stuff was being dumped into this area, and kept saying it would need to be dug out again.