I got an email 3 days ago from M … “On going on my regular Abingdon to Oxford Thames path walk last Sunday I was shocked and upset to see that all the old riverside trees from opposite Nuneham Park boathouse for some miles upriver have been cut down to stumps. Parts of the lovely river walk resembled a war zone or nightmare landscape. Cut branches and trunks had been left lying beside the path, some with buds that will now not develop and underfoot the mud has been churned up by the heavy vehicles that must have been used to do this. I have searched local papers and looked online to find out why this has happened but have been unable to find anything. I do not know if you know anything about this but feel that I cannot be the only person who has noticed or think it deserves a comment.”
I spoke with a dog walker, today. He said walking through these trees used to be so magical, but now they have been destroyed it looks quite bland. He says the trees overhanging the river need chopping back from time to time but not like this. People were shocked.
A lot of the trees are now stacked ready for collection.
this an outrageous act of environmental vandalism, the impact on the wildlife must be massive. How did they get away with it?
There is a piece of fairly ancient law regarding rivers called riparian law , it’s a legislation that puts the responsibility of the river bank and more importantly up to the centre of the river the responsibility of that land owner
, the environment agency have been using it as a way of ducking out of their supposed responsibilities regarding overhanging trees and dredging, I can only guess that this land owner ( who’s land Abuts the river) is doing his bit as a responsible riparian owner while at the same time. negating his liabilities as far as corns stood claims might be if a boat was damaged ets?
Oops, should be compensation!
We walked down towards Radley boathouse from Sandford last Tuesday and were equally amazed by such apparent vandalism to trees and shrubbery.it has been left like a war zone.surely the same landowner cannot be responsible for all this.What is Thames Conservancy’s response to this?
I was worried that this might be part of the scheme to improve the flow of flood water away from Oxford, so I emailed an Abingdon County Councillor on 11th March to see if he could cast a light on it and am awaiting a reply. If it is to improve flood water flow then might this be a threat to Abingdon? On the other hand the work will improve the access for anglers to the river.
A number of trees have been taken out at the Sutton Courtney weirs as well. It certainly seems like an aggressive case of pruning.