Novartis Ings

Well, if visiting the site will be made possible...will it be worth it?

I imagine working practices/vehicles/construction/noise will disturb anything on the site. I also anticipate this work to be 7 days a week too, so as I said...will it be worth visiting?

This from NELC:

“The  EA are preparing to start work on the sea wall flood defence. The barrier is where it is as they are building a compound near the entrance to the hide. We have been informed that from next week the barrier will be manned to let people through.”

This is very disappointing - particularly given the fanfare from North East Lincolnshire Council when it was officially opened by the mayor.

For the foreseeable future, it seems the site will be no longer managed and nor will records be kept during the crucial migration period.

I'll get on to NELC to find out what's what.

We were shocked to turn up a couple of weeks ago to find the access closed Jim. We were told that no access is now permitted, nor none to the North wall. This was by a contractor, who told us the work starts on the defences in September, and will be an ongoing project. Funnily enough, he didn't even know Novartis Ings was a wildlife site, and even funnier was that even Rachel/Sian at the council didn't know the work was starting either! There has been no more correspondence on the sites Whatsapp page from Sian or Rachel with information regarding access or what is happening, despite many members asking questions. I think it is now written off as a site that will be accessible for us now and in the future.

Access to the wader mitigation site at Novartis Ings is currently closed.

It is possible to get to a short stretch footpath that runs on either side of the hide  - via a longer bramble-covered footpath that runs adjacent to the Solenis factory -but this only provides limited viewing opportunities. 

At midday today, the water was high and the only waders conspicuous  were three avocets (including one juvenile). 

By contrast, there were c 1,000 herring and LBB gulls, plus 100+ grey lag geese, 10 Canada geese and two mallard. 

North East Lincolnshire Council is so under-resourced in reserve-management capacity that I am currently not confident that Novartis Ings will be any more successful in providing habitat for waders than Cress Marsh, but only time will tell.