Area around Spion Kop/Jewish Cemy and ECP

[chip f]

Posting this on behalf of Col F who cant seem to login at present and had to post on sightings page. He has raised a complaint currently sat with HBC about what can best be described as Anti Social Behaviour in around the above cemeteries and along whats meant to be our section of The English Coastal Path. This is the latest response he has had from the council  detailed below,  and I think its pertinent in light of recent incidents up there. On Sunday the 3 shorelarks were almost flattened by a quad bike, and today it was a human being watching the birds that was nearly mown down by a lunatic in a 4x4 careering across the land south of the cemy, before driving up onto the coastal path, along that, before ploughing down through what was marram grass and onto the beach. Once on the beach he opened the back of his Land Rover and released two lurchers before driving off up to Crimdon with lurchers racing behind as other dog walkers on the beach rushed to get their dogs on leads. Another vehicle followed closely behind and did exactly the same  :

I am carrying out a site meeting with one of my colleagues this afternoon to look at the area outlined in the (a) png doc.

We will be using the community payback team to assist in a major litter pick of this section. For the area on and adjacent to either side of the ECP. Any further flytipping/deposition of rubbish outside and not part of the spreading room of the ECP is the remit of the landowners and not part of the remit of the local authority, unless it is the landowner. If that is the case then other sections of the LA have management duties to see to rubbish removal. In the case of a private landowner; the LA has no legal control or power to require them to remove flytipping etc from land not part of the ECP and its spreading room.

In this section of land I will also be improving the bunds/embankments so that less or no illegal vehicular traffic will be allowed onto the ECP and any sensitive land used by coastal invertebrates, birds and mammals.

I have still to have a site inspection of the land as outlined in document (b). Part or the majority of it is owned by persimmon homes, who are in the process of building new homes as part of the dev3lopment of the area. They are fencing off major parts of the land as part of health and safety of the site and also for the public?s safety benefit. The public are temporarily excluded from the development site for the period of time it will take to develop the site and this includes the temporary diversion of a public footpath and the ECP within the development site boundary.

The LA realises that there are incursions by illegal vehicular traffic and are trying to look at the best way to control and/or remove such activity. This is a long standing issue that will not be solved quickly and so i am looking at how best to achieve this.

I will let you know when i have more information to share.

Again i would reiterate that if the conservation damage is out-with the ECP and its coastal spread then there is nothing I can do as part of the ECP maintenance regime. If some of the ecological concerns are within the spreading room then it may be that, as with the motorbikes etc, that we could look at control measures to assist in the reduction/cessations of such illegal and damaging activity.

I hope that this helps in providing information for Mr Foster and his concerns.

I don?t think everything will be fixed immediately but the LA, with its limited resources will do its best to mitigate such damage.

[A McLee]

To expect N E to do anything quickly is optimistic to say the least. They are now understaffed and underfunded as a result of on-going government emasculation. If birders and the public at large are to do anything, this behaviour should be reported to the police via 101. If enough reports are so lodged, then even Cleveland Police may get out their cars and get their boots dirty. The miscreants will have already a checkered history and one would like to think the police would love to have a reason to investigate them. ( as the police say they are always " tasty"). There are enough photographers of birds in attendance at the site who might like to take pictures and report this behaviour also, and do something for conservation not to mention public safety. It should be a useful break from taking yet another photograph of a Little Egret.
Ali McLee ( aka Mr Grumpy)

[chip f]

Agree Ali but think you have to start somewhere and its probably easier if enough people are bothered to do it as a group, or as representatives of the Teesmouth Bird Club, as opposed to doing it individually. I have reported instances of fly tipping which have resulted in prosecutions , and I have taken down licence plates and ended up being threatened as a result. Be much easier, if there was sufficent interest to do it collectively so it looks like information is coming from a group rather than just individuals complaining.

Can the council resolve all the issues, probably not. Do they have much money or resource, probably not. Can they do simple practical things to imrove the situation, yes they can.

Looking at the whole site, what was once a great area for birds and wildlife is being slowly destroyed. Breaking it down by Area :

South of Cemy

Following dismantling of site premises the land had been largely left to its own devices and Mother Nature. By 2014 you had at least 3 species ( Lapwing, Ringed Plover and Grey Partridge ) nesting there and a nice mix of pools of water, rough grassland and rubble/shingle. As a result as well as birds you would expect such as gulls, redshank, oystercatcher, dunlin, linnet, greenfinch etc you were getting the odd little treat such as snow bunting, little stint, little ringed plover , etc. Obviously since then the land has been totally flatenned by developers and left open for fly tippers and scramblers, quad bikers and 4x4's to generally trash. We have our shorelarks there at present but not only are they being disturbed regularly, people coming to see them are nearly being run over. You would like to think they could again spend the Winter here, but they seem to be becoming more flighty with each passing day.

Cemeteries themselves  

Not too badly affected all things considered, got a nice pair of stonechat in there at present and hopefully nesting skylarks and mipits wont be put off this Summer by all the mayhem around it. Only downside is scrambler bikes and and quad bikes using it to cut through from beach/cliff tops to Old Cemy Rd, showing complete lack of class and respect, and lurcher set up there lamping on a night.

English Coastal Path 

Where do you start, its basically a main road for unlicensed vehicles and fly tippers. Was talking to a couple from Yorkshire last week who had walked it down from Seham.They said it was beautiful right to the point where it hits Hartlepool then it turns into what one of them decribed as looking like a shithole. No doubt this Spring we will once again see the lurcher set deliberately setting fire to Marram grass and basically any form of greenery or shrub providing cover for rabbits. Not only is this illegal but its destroying valuable habitat and natures own sea defences. I passed on desription of people doing this, times, dates, etc last year to police and fire brigade. Complete waste of time.

Cemy Scrub 

Legendary in terms of providing rarities, at current rate of destruction there will be little of it left within a year or two. It now has a "road" running through it similar to ECP. Grasses and scrub repeatedly set fire to last year. How many rarities did it throw up in 2015 ? How many even still check for birds there ? You spend more time dodging flytipped household waste and scramblers.

Steetley Site

Once the houses are up you hope it will be a goldmine in a few years with all manner of rarities dropping into the gardens. Much will depend on how Persimmon landscape the land between sea and houses. Will the public have any input into that ? As it stands by closing off Old Cemy Road access to Brus Tunnel and the beach Persimmon have basically re-directed all illegal traffic, of which there is a lot, onto the ECP. Cheers for that lads !

Brus Tunnel Area

It just doubles up now as fly-tipping outlet and scramber bike racing circuit. They have even built thir own racetrack into the dunes and had races there the Sunday before last complete with a starter waving a flag.They are there every Sunday morning without fail, and the numbers are growing. Its not like the council would have to try very hard to identify these people and speak with them. 

[A McLee]

Overstretched police resources do what they get rewarded for and often this is removing nuisance from public areas. This implies it merely moves to non public areas which we as birders are aware of. If every birder, resident in the borough of Hartlepool raised the issue with there respective councilor and insisted they make a police issue of it we might see some action. A good starting position is to point out that there is a new housing development evolving and such antisocial behaviour must not become ingrained.

[chip f]

Colin ( who still cant log in ) has had email back from English Nature confirming they intend to hold joint visit at the site with Hartlepool Borough Council within a fortnight.

Doing best to keep a log of any Anti Social behaviour up there or plates of vehicles on ECP in meantime.

If anyone has any bad experiences up there dont hesitate to mention them here. Was a decent crowd up there lunchtime so birds still pulling in the numbers.

[Keith Ryan]

Keep up the good work Chip, I appreciate it, as I'm sure most others do.

[chip f]

Thanks Keith, it's a lot more Colins work than mine. Neither of us are experts we will readily admit, more a pair of dog walkers lured back into childhood interest in birds, and sort of bitten by the bug.

Main concern at present is that the closure of Old Cemetery Road once it hits the housing development is forcing illegal traffic either side of it. The Cemy Scrub now has a "road" running through it, and theres no doubt in my mind theres been a big drop in the number of birds using it as a consequence.

Likewise theres now a "road" from the Cemy South wasteland along the ECP and down onto the beach, which is home in the Summer to skylarks and pipits and used as a drop in centre by wheatear.

If Persimmon get the landscaping between the houses and the beach wrong that section of the ECP will just become an extension of the existing racetrack on a weekend for scrablers and quad bikes.   

[chip f]

Burnt out car smashed into the fence around the construction site at the back of the Jewish Cemetery today.

Potential home buyers getting a taste of what they are letting themselves in for, and somewhat ironic it was construction vehicles that created the road around the back of the Cemy in the first place.

[fosterc]

Just had a call with guy from the council re ECP and they've done all they have promised to do so far which is clean the site, and prevent access as much as they can, on the ECP.  Private land isn't so easy  but there has been big improvements up there.  Problem will be the land before the cemy getting hammered in the summer by 1001 scramblers...

Road will be made good, has already been improved, once site finished and also cemy will have a new wall on the Jewish outer side facing new homes, on the side facing the headland housing and all along the length of old cemy road, facing the town.  Outer wall to sea will not be rebuilt.

:-)