FORMER Mayor of Warrington Geoff Settle has been left devastated after rare orchids at Birchwood appeared to be destroyed by Warrington Borough Council’s grounds maintenance workers.
Geoff, who was also Chair of the Warrington Nature Conservation Forum said: “I have sent maps indicating where bee-orchids are found and asked that these areas remain uncut several years ago. This was successful for one year. Since then, they have sent in the mowers and cut down any semblance of life.
“Why they insist in manicured fields I do not know, they’ll have their workforce down on bended knees soon with scissors tiding up the edges.”
Geoff has had two hip replacements following his Mayoral year and went in search of a site in Birchwood where there used to be hundreds of Bee-orchids and Pink Orchids, either side of the path that goes from the bridge over the M6 and travels down to the Scout Hut of Warrington Road.
He took Princess Charlotte, a mascot from his Mayoral year of office and was devasted to only found one pink orchid in the uncut grassland but none in the mowed quarter. He believes it was a northern orchid. They discovered twenty-six more near a lake.
Geoff hasn’t had a chance yet to see how other Bee-Orchids are performing at the small woodland near Morrisons, Stockton Heath. He would love to know how they are doing this year. He said that orchids like special environments and Stockton Heath has such a place where they flourish. He says the wooded ares is a place where Warrington Borough Council can’t send the mowers to kill them.
The former Mayor added: “The committee decided to close down the Warrington Nature Conservation Forum in April this year because of the lack of support. Our secretary’s role had been axed and she moved to Chester. Then our brand-new web page on the council’s site was blown away, it left our members feeling demoralized. All our newsletters vanished in to the ether. As someone with a 30 year career in IT I know you don’t treat your customers with such contempt. Maybe the new officers will concede this point and step up to the plate?
“On the bright side we were able to donate the £810.54 to two wildlife charities, Wild Wings Birds of Prey at Culcheth and Birchwood Hedgehog Rescue. With the drastic way the climate change is forcing our nature to adapt or die we perhaps need a new approach and any suggestions greatly appreciated.”
The group can still be contacted via their website website wncf.co.uk
1 Comment
Thanks Gary I hope that whoever becomes our new MPs North and South gives a fig about Nature in Warrington and that they don’t forget the rhetoric in their manifesto.