This was the walk of Sunday, 18th February,2024.

I set off at 10:20, took the Maplebeck Drive route to Blowick Moss Lane as I reasoned the field would be a wet mess, this was evidenced when I past it and could see standing water at various points across the grass, the drains simply aren’t up to the task, more on this later.

From here I walked the entirety of Folkstone Road and then up to Southport Road via the Tesco path. Then it was all the way to the Snape Green pedestrian crossing via Southport Road. Once at Snape Green I walked along the same road Wyke Cop Road and Wyke Lane, passing over the closed level crossing until the Moss Lane turn-off. At the Spar / Roe Lane roundabout I turned left and stayed on Old Park Lane / Bispham Road until the turning for Canning Road then left onto Newton Street, and left again onto Wennington Road, crossing Cobden Street and Crowland Street onto Foul Lane. Then it was along the revamped path at the new Sainsbury development at Meols Cop, onto Meols Cop Road and into Hobby Craft followed by Aldi – for some tomatoes.

Along came the horrid crossing of Meols Cop Road and onto Scarisbrick New Road before turning left in order to pick up the (relatively) new path which follows alongside Fine Jane’s Brook until crossing on to Craven Close > Salthouse Drive, over Town Lane Kew, filtering through Hythe Close, Crockleford Ave, Ardleigh Avenue, Malham Close and Sangness Drive and onto Folkstone Road once more. Then back home via Langford Drive and Gateford Way.

Okay so that’s the route over and down with, now to go over some of the things I thought about whilst on route.
1 Why do some dog-owners not both cleaning up after their shit-machine? You could pretty make out a week’s worth of crap left by (potentially) one dog at various states of decay punctuated over around one mile on Southport Road. Dog owners, feel your shame!

2 Global warning is a very real thing, it’s here, it’s affecting our climate already, re: Are we getting more rain than in previous centuries . This is seen in pretty much every farmer’s field which I past yesterday. Standing water rots crops, it just does. Our farms, which are hundreds of years old are evidently, simply not able to cope with the amount of rain they have received in the last few years. We need to produce more food – mainly because there are more of us than at any other point in time. Growing our own food results in a smaller carbon footprint and less reliance on imported crops from elsewhere. But, the farms have to bend with the times, we need better drainage so that less crops are wasted, so that less water runs off the fields and onto the local environment. Adding better drainage to existing farmland is expensive, £1000-2000 per square acre expensive, so the farmers need help with this transition. Unless we want to be in a state where huge corporations own the land of the producers of our food and all that entails then the government needs to step in with financial schemes and incentives. We don’t have the financial reserves of North Sea Oil / Gas anymore. Is it a case of successive governments having sold off most of our assets and our industries are a bygone memory? Is there nobody to help us and that we have to help ourselves? Seemingly so and, with regret, that can only come about with an increase, across the board, in taxation. None of us likes this prospect, and no political party is ever going to put this in their election manifesto, but how else are we to thrive? I didn’t vote for Brexit, (I never voted at all for that matter) but if we are so determined to look after ourselves then we have to do just that, make things work, for ourselves and future generations!

Well, let’s see…

 

Apologies for the rant, I do so hate to see flooded fields going to waste.

This was a much needed and thought-provoking walk which hopefully should kickstart my walking year.