This Sunday afternoon brought only a warm breeze under an overcast sky. Storm Floris is due tomorrow but is expected to affect mainly the North.
Setting out from Abingdon Bridge towards the lock, we hadn’t expected to cross the weir — diversion signs still warned it was closed. Music drifted from the Nags Head as we followed the Thames. A longboat selling Hasbeen Handbags was moored beside Happy Heron, a Viking cruiser up for sale.
Contractors were repairing two sections of riverbank — one unstable, the other worn into an inlet by flood flow. Several swimmers, a couple of generations older than those seen a month ago, were steadily crossing the river and back.
At the lock, three rowing boats from the Weyfarers Rowing Club in Weybridge passed through with a long way to go.
Further on, quite a few people were crossing the weir walkway. The warning boards had been pushed aside again. I don’t know how unstable the walkway is, but the Environment Agency, who put the diversion in place, clearly didn’t think it safe. (The fish pass has become overgrown since its closure).
Beyond it, the mill stream was clogged with reeds and bent trees. Large rhubarb-like leaves grow along the banks. It seems to be getting more overgrown year by year. Carry on like this, and the district council won’t need to repair the wooden bridge (featured on the blog a few weeks ago) — we’ll be able to walk across on dry land.
Rather off topic but has anyone noticed the consultation regarding the proposed regulation of recycling centres in Oxfordshire. There’s talk of the need to book a time slot, prove your address and a limited number of visits per year amongst other things. More here https://www.heraldseries.co.uk/news/25359160.major-changes-set-tip-recycling-centres-oxfordshire/
I’ve had a look at the Herald article about the changes to the recycling centres. It says that you can go on OCC ‘s consultation page and have your say. The only trouble with that is OCC will then ignore what anyone says and go ahead the changes anyway.
It does indeed all sound rather predetermined but should anyone fancy doing the questionnaire it’s here :- https://letstalk.oxfordshire.gov.uk/
Well, we know that kind of change will just lead to flytipping sadly. The whole point of having a tip is to prevent flytipping, if they make it difficult then people will be discouraged to make the effort. People are already overwhelmed by online forms, logins to a hundred different things.
Also their website was down the other week, so nothing chargeable could be booked in, if they want to force that on people then the site needs to be stable or there’ll be chaos.