Not impressed!

[SeeJillRun]

The trail I run is partially on an area of reclaimed open cast mining land that’s been sort of landscaped and left to run wild. There’s a couple of large ponds with swans, geese, ducks etc, lots of lovely wildflowers, a wide variety of butterflies and dragonflies, and at least one bird of prey (can’t tell which one) that I regularly see hunting

They’re building a housing estate on the end furthest from me, it’s been in progress for a few years but it’s a good 1 and a half miles till I reach the area that’s being built in.

So I was very sad today to see diggers and dump trucks alongside the path at the half mile mark. I really hope they don’t build on the entire area, it’s very popular with runners, dog walkers and families with young kids and it’d be a terrible shame to lose such a love spot to run in 😔

[Buddy34 Graduate10]

Sadly it seems to be the same everywhere. Any bit of grass or land and before you know it there are houses built on it . 😊

[SeeJillRun 60minGraduate in reply to Buddy34]

I’m quite conflicted cos it’ll be classed as brownfield land n I’d rather they build on brownfield land than greenfield. I guess I just didn’t expect them to be working at this end when the building is at the other end 😕

[GoGo_JoJo Graduate10]

That's a shame. If it's a public right of way through it they'll need to maintain that, but if not it will become off limits 👎🏼👎🏼👎🏼

[SeeJillRun 60minGraduate in reply to GoGo_JoJo]

I’m honestly not sure if it’s a right of way. I think the actual path may stay, it’s not been built on where the new houses are, just wasn’t expecting diggers at the opposite end to the building work

[GoGo_JoJo Graduate10 in reply to SeeJillRun]

If you give me some details I can check on the ordnance survey maps...

[SeeJillRun 60minGraduate in reply to GoGo_JoJo]

Ooh that’d be great, thanks! The path runs along the western bank of the River Rother in Rotherham close to the Sheffield border. It runs between Retford Road (B6200) and Orgreave Road (B6066). The area is called Orgreave (yes, the one from the miners’ strike) and is south of J33 of the M1. Sadly I have no coordinates, I’m just going off Apple Maps n it doesn’t have anything that useful 🙄. Let me know if you need more details

[Irishprincess Graduate10]

That is such a shame. I know it's all "progress" but even so ☹️ I wonder if the wildlife communities know.....

[GoGo_JoJo Graduate10 in reply to Irishprincess]

Let's just hope they have a bit longer before 5G scares them all away from built up areas altogether 😥

[Irishprincess Graduate10 in reply to GoGo_JoJo]

☹️☹️

[SeeJillRun 60minGraduate in reply to GoGo_JoJo]

Hope so! 🤞🤞

[SeeJillRun 60minGraduate in reply to Irishprincess]

I don’t know but it’s been being built on for some years n I know there’s more to come. Just didn’t expect diggers so far from where the building is happening, it makes me so sad for the wildlife

[Irishprincess Graduate10 in reply to SeeJillRun]

I know and then people complain about foxes in their gardens or deer coming in to eat their greens but forget that they have nowhere else to go and these places were where they lived!

[Buddy34 Graduate10 in reply to Irishprincess]

You now see foxes during the day where I live and it was only usually at night

[SeeJillRun 60minGraduate in reply to Buddy34]

That’s not so unusual, although they’re primarily nocturnal it’s not that rare to see them in the daytime as they move from one place to another

[SeeJillRun 60minGraduate in reply to Irishprincess]

Yup! Luckily we’re blessed with plenty of green space where I live still but it still makes me sad to think that the pleasant green space where I run might not stay that way for much longer 😔

[hamit Graduate10]

They won,t stop until they have paved over the last blade of grass!

[grumpyoldgirl]

So sad to see this Jill, even the green belt near where I live is being nibbled away, but it's awful to see green fields disappear wherever they are. And yes, they seem to classify everything as brownfield so they can get it through planning.

[SeeJillRun 60minGraduate in reply to grumpyoldgirl]

It’s definitely brownfield, it used to be Orgreave Colliery, and I’d rather they build on brownfield than greenbelt. I just didn’t expect diggers a mile away from where they’re building. I’m going to have a look online for the plans and see what the extent of the site will be 😕

[grumpyoldgirl in reply to SeeJillRun]

No, that must have been horrible. Interesting they can build on it, in the Welsh valleys a lot of former colliery land is too unstable to build on.

[SeeJillRun 60minGraduate in reply to grumpyoldgirl]

I don’t know if it makes a difference but it was an opencast colliery so there’s no tunnels to worry about

[grumpyoldgirl in reply to SeeJillRun]

Ah yes that makes sense.