Steve - Re: Nadins Pool -
What do you locals think ?
Regards Steve.........
In fairness: this whole site has been earmarked for civic use for around twenty years or so. There was a coal mine on the site, then open-cast, then a waste tip and now it's awaiting the final few steps; golf course etc.
A lot of work has gone into that whole south Derbyshire area in the last ten years. Being at the heart of the new national forest; the number of areas that have been planted up with trees or otherwise improved for biodiversity is fairly amazing and obviously very welcome. The south Derbyshire that I see now and the potential is a very far cry from the post industrial wasteland that I first found thirty or so years ago; pit-heads, smoke, coal dust everywhere and huge slag and waste heaps wherever you looked. Another ten and twenty years from now, south Derbyshire will be a very nice place indeed thanks to all of the work that's gone on during the last ten years.
Nadins pond is a potentially excellent site, unfortunately I think that it would be wishful thinking to hope that it will become any kind of nature reserve. I suppose that the people of Swadlincote could be forgiven for playing golf and walking their dogs there (not the idiots on motorbikes though) when I think also of the huge amount of other local work that has occurred in the last ten years for ecology and environmental improvement.
Nadins Pond as a nature reserve would be nice but if I'm completely honest I don't think that it would be the greatest of losses to the areas ecological potential. It is a shame though that it will probably become something as sterile as a golf course.
I popped into Willington GP last night; access still difficult due to high water levels, it'll be interesting to see the damage when the water goes down a bit more. It'll recover soon enough I guess but I would imagine that all of the nesting warblers and waders have had a rough ride. The Anglers won't be too chuffed either.
Sorry Anna, I forgot to mention; thanks for starting the thread.