When the Local Government Ombudsman found the Council guilty of maladministration in 2013 and said this maladministration should not persist we didn't expect to find ourselves in exactly the same situation seven years later.
As the LGO also said they couldn't find a causal link between the subsidence at Newgate Kennels and the peat extraction (even though every peat extraction site in Europe suffers from subsidence) the Council took that as a reason to do nothing.
Saltersley Common Preservation Society (SCPS) took advice from Giles Coppock QC and consulted with hydrogeologists whose results we now have. To no-ones surprise they have found a direct link between the extraction and the subsidence at the kennels. As a sluice and settling pond should have been installed in 2003 this no doubt helped in the lowering of the water table. This evidence is now with our solicitors as a writ is prepared against the operator.
Unfortunately, during the investigation, another problem has come to light. Those people who walk along Rotherwood Road will have noticed the oak trees leaning and eventually falling. The last one to fall was in 2019 and the residents of the White House (subsidence first reported to CCC in 1998) called Cheshire East Council (CEC) and an officer from the Public Rights of Way Network attended. He told the residents that the tree fell due to old age and as the roots were on their land the removal was their responsibility.
Everything about the tree showed it was in good health so SCPS called in an arboroculturalist to check the rest of the oak trees on Rotherwood Road. The conclusion was that the fallen tree was indeed healthy and the reason that tree and other trees are leaning and falling is because of the unstable ground conditions, no doubt caused by the fluctuating water table.
Had the sluice and settling pond been installed in 2003 this problem may not have arisen. As it is, CEC must look to solutions now before there is further subsidence to not only trees but other surrounding properties.
Photo: Julie Browning who lives at the White House on Rotherwood Road.
Tony Evans
Hon. Sec. Saltersley Common Preservation Society
Comments
Here's what readers have had to say so far. Why not add your thoughts below.
Phase one of the regeneration is to seal the holes in the bog to prevent further seepage of water. Only when the water table is returned to where it should be is the sluice gate and holding pond required. There will doubtless be some technicalities and legalities to be overcome but without money to back an alternative plan it will be pointless going to CEC. They will say they have approved 14 houses that will pay for the regeneration.
There is an on going issue with legal action pending. This is against Croghan Peat and involves CEC too as it is claimed the drying out of the bog is the cause of serious subsidence at the Newgate kennels and at the White House on Rotherwood. But this should not interfere with progress on regenerating the bog as the evidence is well recorded and is on going.
As has already been said, the residents deserve better.
Along with Tony Evans, Transition Wilmslow’s Lindow Moss Restoration Group is campaigning hard to get the water loss under control and to have the Moss restored. We do not want to see yet another year when the winter recharge of the water table goes to waste in a dry spring, and we want to see a permanent end to the threat of landfill “and return to agriculture” which still hangs over much of the Moss.
We are sufficiently concerned about continuing water loss that we have now commissioned another independent hydrogeology report to determine how much more water has drained from the Moss and how this can be reversed. The results will be available at later in the summer when we will share them widely.
To hear this has happened is no surprise. To affect other business is irresponsible.
Maybe our MP could ask for funding?
This morning a working party from Croghan Peat turned up and started taking peat away. When challenged, they said they were starting the restoration works and the material being trucked out wasn't peat anyway!
They are taking the peat from the north east corner, the very place which is suffering the worst from the lowering of the water table.
In the past it would have taken weeks for a reaction so many thanks to ROW for immediately getting involved.
At the time of writing we have divine intervention. The tractor is stuck!
What I find hard to reconcile the our council's total lack of action to protect this site, both in 2003 when planning permission was given to dig peat along with 53 conditions which have been ignored by Crogham Peat. The replacement of the Sluice gates to preserve the water table and to allow the peat to be rewetted seems crucial to any restoration plan. This was supposed to be done before any restoration work started along with a vole count. CEC has confirmed that neither of these preparatory actions have been undertaken and no restoration plan has been submitted to CEC. This activity therefore by definition is not restoration. How do we get our elected representatives at CEC to do their duty by this precious site?