Barbed Wire at Brockles...

It is sad to relate that Brockles field in Cuxton, high on the hillside overlooking Bush Valley, has now been disfigured by hideously ugly galvanised steel gates and barbed wire fencing. 

It seems (from their Facebook page) that this project was supported by "Old Chalk New Downs", a lottery-funded group whose brief is to address "the loss of people’s connection with their natural environment and lack of knowledge and understanding of the value of their heritage through a variety of schemes"...

OCND: fencing off the countryside for YOU...

From what I can work out, it seems OCND think that the way to get people "connected with their natural environment" is to help landowners fence off or screen off as much of it as they can. A look at their annual reports for the past few years shows they have been involved with several North Kent land enclosure projects, one that will undoubtedly preserve chalkland habitat by preventing people with a "lack of knowledge and understanding of the value of their heritage" from getting anywhere near it.

It is perhaps no surprise that they have also been working with Vineyard "Get Orf Our Larnd" Farms, providing lottery funding to facilitate the planting of hedgerow screens on a private estate owned by a billionaire tax exile. 

Quite how VF/MDCV's winery plans (which at present include excavating 160,000-odd cubic meters of chalk for their winery and then burying Bush Valley under the spoil - plans which were rejected by Medway Council's Planning Committee) fit in with OCND's objective to "improve, restore, and reconnect threatened chalk grassland habitats" is a bit of a puzzle, of course. 

Perhaps VF's ongoing practice of dumping piles of ugly spoil along the edges of fields (see examples here and here) is also part of the master plan to "improve, restore, and reconnect threatened chalk grassland habitats"... 

I originally thought that this particular enclosure project had been undertaken to try and protect the cattle that sometimes graze up there from harassment by out-of-control dogs, whose owners have done so much to make any walk around Ranscombe Reserve an occasionally miserable, stressful and sometimes painful activity these days, at least in my experience.

I used to enjoy carefully picking my way through the Brockles grassland in early summer, looking for unusual wildflowers such as broomrape and Bee Orchids, or trying to photograph the Marbled Whites, Common Blue and Small Heath butterflies that abound up there. That small pleasure has now been obstructed, but then I would probably be considered by the doubtlessly highly-qualified folk of bodies such as OCND to have a "lack of knowledge and understanding of the value of our heritage" and so would not be not deemed worthy to access such places anyway.

It seems it's all "theirs" now, not ours...

Views of what Brockles used to look like before it got cordoned off like a mine field can be found here.

Now that the "Silverhand Estate" across Bush Valley and Luddesdown has become a virtual no-go area, we are becoming increasingly short of places to go for a hassle-free walk: step off the public footpaths up there in careful pursuit of a butterfly, wildflower or a better view, and a "warden" in a 4x4 will soon descend upon you and demand that you "get orf their larnd" immediately. I think they must spend all day scanning the horizon through binoculars, looking for "trespassers". You certainly feel like you are being watched.

There is the argument that people like me are part of the problem, of course, and that our harmless observations actually damage wildlife and crops blah blah. Really? 

That is just so much "gaslighting", of course... 

To me, that argument just sounds likes an excuse to shut the countryside down for the benefit of private landowners, aided and abetted by a few clever environmentalists who think that the countryside is a Petri dish - and one that has to be kept uncontaminated by people like me. 

All that said, if their experiences with ignorant dog owners, litter louts and their loathsome offspring are anything like some of the ones I have had whilst out walking in around Cuxton, Halling and Luddesdown, then I have a bit of sympathy for the scientists who want to shut down our countryside, and for landowners like Vineyard Farms: VF even had one of their "boast posts" vandalised recently, which was inexcusable.

More and more of Cuxton's countryside is being fenced off to exclude its residents but perhaps overall we deserve it, thanks to a dog-owning, litter/poo bag-dropping, selfish and self-entitled chav contingent. 

Why should land owners have to put up with aggressive yobs who seem to think they have the right to drop litter, light barbecues or let their stupid, semi-feral pets and offspring run riot everywhere? Or ride their quad/trials bikes across farmland and through woodlands, terrorising livestock and wildlife and tearing up crops and fields? 

And what incentive do landowners have to take the time to distinguish the good from the bad visitors to their property? Can you blame them for fencing it off?

I am depressed and discouraged....

Arrogantia divitum non diligitur...

Recently spotting a Wall butterfly at the bottom of Barrow Hill was a bittersweet experience. My joy at seeing that these now-scarce butterflies are moving back into Upper Bush was tempered by the knowledge that Vineyard farms will soon be destroying the area for their vanity winery.

Walking down the North Downs Way through Upper Bush after my “parish boundary stone hunt”, I came to the crossing at Bush Road. Here, my mood darkened further when I saw that Vineyard Farms have now been putting up markers of their own...

Vineyard Farms' new boundary marker - a "boast post"...

A wooden post has been put in place, asserting that the area is now apparently part of something called the “Silverhand Estate”. This seems to be a piece of whimsy on behalf of our new baronial masters: the name “Silverhand” appears on no local map, past or present and has (as far as I know) no actual meaning or historic connection with the area, or indeed, with anything else at all.

Between them, the fields, woodlands and roads around Cuxton and Luddesdown have many interesting and unusual names, names that are steeped in local history. Wrangling Lane, Cutter Ridge, Bushy Wood, Hatch Hill, Wrenches Shaw, Brazenden Wood, Backenden Hill: all of these names mean something locally and would have made perfectly appropriate titles for Vineyard Farms’ new estate.

A company that cared a bit more about the local community might have even asked its neighbours what they thought their estate could be called, but then “community engagement” isn’t exactly the Vineyard Farms way, beyond the bare minimum needed to tick that box for the planning application. (Perhaps they were scared they might have gotten too many "Winey Mc.Wineface" answers...)

So sadly it appears that Vineyard Farms have chosen to ignore any local connotations when naming their new baronial fiefdom, preferring instead to celebrate their ownership of 1200 acres of historic farmland across Cuxton and Luddesdown by naming it after a computer game character.

It just seems like the Lord of the Manor crowing: "All of this is ours now, not yours..."

Their new propaganda post boasts about the hedgerows that are being planted on their new estate, as part of an initiative by a lottery-funded group called Old Chalk New Downs. Indeed, Vineyard Farms' "Biodiversity Net Gain Assessment" (on the Council Planning Portal) claims a net "Habitat Unit" (furniture?) gain of 14.34% and a "hedgerow unit" gain of 864.47%. Utterly meaningless twaddle, of course, as if "biodiversity" can be calculated to two decimal places. Shoving a few twigs in the ground at the start of a drought hardly compensates for the desertification of 1200 acres of arable farmland or the planned levelling of Barrow Hill to build a totally unnecessary and unwanted tacky tourist trap on a green belt AONB. 

They also boast about the "biodegradable cardboard" used to protect their new twigs. No mention at all of the hundreds of thousands of non-biodegradable plastic net sheathes that protect their precious vines (1.5 million of them, so I gather) and which, from a distance, now give the valleys their unpleasant chemical green tint.  

Given that each sheath weighs 45g, 1.5 million of them equates to a staggering 67.5 tonnes of plastic. Some of this already seems to be strewn across the public footpaths as you make your way around the estate, although one would hope that there would be arrangements made to collect and recycle the horrid things once they have served their purpose.

And can it really be that a company owned by a billionaire tax exile (and one with its tax arrangements doubtless being as "tax efficient" as those of its owner) would actually be exploiting UK tax-payer's money and lottery funding to get their new "hedgerows" planted?  Certainly such hedgerow work would be eligible for grants from the Farming In Protected Landscapes and the Old Chalk New Downs projects that VF are bragging about their involvement with. 

Personally I think it is disgraceful that public money is apparently being used to fund the planting of hedgerows on a private estate. I'm not sure that in these harsh times, those struggling to pay their bills would really want to hear that the taxes they pay may be subsidizing trendy "green-washing" by companies owned by billionaires, especially billionaires that live abroad for tax purposes. Perhaps it will give them such a warm feeling, they won't need to heat their houses with expensive gas or electricity...

I wonder if DEFRA/OCND even know just what MDCV/Vineyard Farms are really up to?  Are they aware that Medway Council's planning committee have just rejected VF's winery plans because of their "inappropriate nature" for green belt AONB and the damage they would to "protected landscapes" and "old chalk"? 

Vineyard Farms even have the cheek to display the logo of the Kent Downs AONB unit on their new boasting post, a group that expressed a strong and detailed objection to VF's plans on Medway Council's planning portal.

Despite the extensive local opposition to their plans, I understand that Vineyard Farms are now definitely going ahead with an appeal against the decision (made by Medway’s democratically-elected councillors on the planning committee) to reject their vainglorious scheme.

It's an appeal I think they will probably win. Vineyard Farms know that the locals can’t match the array of highly-paid experts and barristers they will be hiring to argue that black is white in front of the planning inspector at the forthcoming public inquiry. Their owner’s millions will buy them what they want in the end. We all knew that would happen anyway, didn’t we?

The final gloat on the boast post: "Wine Conquered"...

So I’m kind of surprised Vineyard Farms didn’t put “Vinum Vincit” (rather than “Vinum Victa”) on their cheesy, nineteen-seventies-style faux armorial. Even a shed-load of cash can't buy you taste, it seems...