Ron Granger

Arable Technical Manager for Limagrain UK. Views are my own.

[🌻 AnnetteJB- Go Wild @writethewrongs2]

Wtf! This is heartbreaking and pure eco vandalism. We need to name and shame @Hill_Group_UK @MoleValleyDC and @SurreyPolice for this. 👇

A building that was a noted nesting site for swifts, among the UK’s most at-risk birds, has been demolished during the nesting season, highlighting significant weaknesses in the protection of wildlife from development, campaigners say.

Contractors for the housebuilder Hill Group carried out the demolition of Regent House near Dorking station in Surrey over the last few weeks, during the nesting season which runs from 1 March to 31 August.

Footage captured last week shows swifts attempting to return to nests in the building, which was known to be home to one of the largest populations of the birds in the Mole Valley area in Surrey. They approach and then repeatedly turn away because their nests are no longer there.

The building was a known habitat for nesting swifts. Volunteers for Swift Protection Association Reigate have recorded very intense low-level flying involving as many as 40 birds using about 20 sites in the eaves of the building in early spring and summer for several years.

Demolition and construction work are heavily restricted during the nesting season under the Wildlife and Countryside Act. It is an offence to intentionally or recklessly damage or destroy the nest of any wild bird while it is in use or being built, or to disturb dependent young.

Annie Griffin of Banstead Swifts, a volunteer group that monitors and tries to stabilise swift populations, said residents raised the alarm with Surrey police wildlife officers in early May, shortly after the swifts returned from migration and were observed nesting in the building. Mole Valley district council (MVDC) was also told about the birds’ presence.

Despite this, demolition proceeded during peak nesting season,” said Griffin. “Conservationists are now describing the incident as a significant wildlife crime, raising broader concerns about the enforcement of environmental protections during development across England.”

Regent House was demolished as part of a development of 126 flats by Clarion housing association. An impact assessment carried out for the developers by the Arbtech environmental consultancy said demolition and construction should take place outside the nesting season.

If a different timeframe could not be avoided, it said, an ecological expert would have to undertake a thorough inspection before the start of any work and all active nests would have to be retained until the young had fledged.

The Guardian asked Hill Group and Clarion if such an ecological inspection had taken place in the last few weeks, but they declined to answer. They also refused to say the timeframe for the demolition could not be avoided.

https://t.co/OcZuZguX6r

[Dougie Brimson 🎬 🇬🇧 🇮🇱 @dougiebrimson]

9 years ago today, @roylarner41, without any consideration for his own safety, single handedly took on 3 armed terrorists at #BoroughMarket saving countless lives.

He never received any medals and is yet to receive any compensation for his injuries. Shameful.

#LondonBridge🇬🇧

[James Melville 🚜 @JamesMelville]

It has been calculated that the proposed 600MW 'hyperscale' AI data centre in Fife would use the energy of more than 50% of Scotland's households. No one voted for this monstrosity.

[Robbie @Robbie_Reasons]

Tower Hamlets councillors have voted themselves pay rises of up to 130% just 3 weeks after being elected.

The East London authority with Britain’s highest child poverty rate approves increases.

Britain's highest level of child poverty but a councillor gotta eat right?

[Prem Sikka @premnsikka]

Thames Water asks millions to stop using hosepipes.

A few days sunshine and infrastructure can't cope

TW built no new reservoir since 1989, loses 570m-592m litres of water daily to leaky pipes

Sewage dumped in rivers. Customers fleeced. TW still trades.
https://t.co/cpmSaxr0Ld

[Arcticfox 🍃💚🍃🦎🦇🦎🦇 @greenbeltsal]

Plus @Danone want to destroy a community planted woodland to expand their bottling facilities.
@PinewoodsHgt
Utter madness especially with the water shortages of the last few years.
They don't even have enough spring water for their expansion plans.
I believe they are drilling

[Edward Hobden @EdwardHobden]

A lot of Sikhs online are saying that it is totally unacceptable for any British government to ban the kirpan, because it is absolutely essential for Sikhs.
Yet, Denmark, Italy, France, & Belgium ban it.
In Italy alone, there are c.200,000 Sikhs.

[Made In England @BuyEnglishMade]

Next time you buy water in a supermarket, check who actually owns it.

Evian - Danone (French)
Volvic — Danone (French)
Harrogate Spring — Danone (French)
Buxton — Nestlé (Swiss)
Highland Spring — UAE

Not one major brand on the shelf is British owned.

Time to start backing our own.

[Bernie @Artemisfornow]

Because too many local people are objecting to giant solar farms on farmland near their homes….

… Labour has changed the law so communities can object, but now those objections can be ignored.

Another little bit of our democracy chipped away.

[Artur Nadolny @ArturNadol7566]

THE CO-OP THAT FORGOT WHAT CO-OP MEANS

OurCoop just handed its CEO Debbie Robinson a £1.5 million bonus on top of her salary. Total pay package: around £2.2 million. The company is called a mutual. It exists to serve its members.

Trading profit halved this year to £4.3 million. Underlying profit collapsed from £10.9 million to £1.2 million. Turnover fell. Net debt rose. The community dividend scheme was paused. Workers on the shop floor got a minimum wage raise to £12.40 an hour.

The CEO salary ratio to the average worker was 38:1 last year. Add the full bonus and it becomes roughly 80:1. The board decided the old policy of paying executives one-third to one-half of market rates was "inappropriate." So they fixed that. For themselves.

Other managers on the Management Incentive Scheme were quietly told there would be no bonuses this year because the profit target was missed. Those managers presumably did not sit on the Remuneration Committee.

OurCoop told members the bonuses reflect "individual and team contribution through a period of significant change." The period of significant change being the merger that Robinson oversaw as the person whose job it was to oversee the merger.

Over a million members. 13,000 colleagues. £844 million turnover. £1.2 million underlying profit. And the top three executives walked away with £2.7 million in bonuses between them.

The whole point of a co-operative is that it does not do this.

Sources: @guardian @coopnews

[Fred F.P.L.C🇫🇷🇮🇹 @charliezemmour]

Ses locataires lui avaient rendu son appartement dans un état pitoyable et laissé quelques ordures. Il est allé les déverser devant leur nouvelle maison.
Bravo Monsieur !

[Sama Hoole @SamaHoole]

Charges brought against Gerald, in full

Defendant: Gerald, four-year-old Hereford cross, of a field near Ledbury. The charges were read to him in full. He kept eating.

1. Methane. The carbon came out of the grass, which took it from the air last spring, and it returns within twelve years for the grass to use again. A closed loop, running since long before anyone thought to bill him for it. (Charge counts the burp and forgets the field. Filed anyway.)

2. The Amazon. Gerald has never been to Brazil. He's never been to Bristol. The soy that clears rainforest is grown for oil, the leftover meal goes to chickens and pigs, and Gerald eats grass. (Charge applies a Brazilian problem to a Herefordshire cow on the grounds that both contain the word "cattle." Filed anyway.)

3. Land use. The field grows grass because the soil's thin, the slope's wrong, and it rains sideways. Take Gerald off it and it grows bracken, not dinner. (Charge assumes the land came with a menu. It came with grass. Filed anyway.)

4. Water use. The 15,000 litres is rain. It falls on Ledbury with or without him, soaks in, and leaves again. The almond in the prosecution's smoothie drank an aquifer dry, and nobody read it its rights. (Charge bills Gerald for the weather. Filed anyway.)

5. Crop deaths. Gerald owns no combine, no plough, no licence, and no thumbs. The voles die under machinery in fields he has never set hoof in. His own field has dung beetles in it; the sprayed monoculture next door is quieter than a car park. (Charge blames the cow standing nearest the tractor. Filed anyway.)

6. The real one. The oil press has no face. The cargo plane has no face. Gerald has a face, stands in plain sight, and cannot afford a lawyer. He is simply the easiest thing in the food system to convict. (This charge has evidence. The evidence is that it's easier than looking at the rest.)

Verdict: guilty on all counts, particularly the last.

Sentencing adjourned. The defendant is on the south side of the field, eating the evidence.

[Benjamin Pearson “Interceptor” @bs_pearson]

It’s not often I write a post like this, but I feel I need too. After 19 years as a cop, and giving my life for the public I’ve never met, believing in a better tomorrow…..I’m utterly disgusted, ashamed and have absolutely no faith in our justice system anymore.

An officer was fired for arresting a violent offender, who was armed with a weapon, because he had used some naughty words. The same ex-officer tackled a shoplifter who’s been charged with a plethora of offences, but has now been charged with assault after taking the offender to the floor. (Which is what he was trained to do)

Then two violent thugs, assault various people, attack female officers, and when an officer steps in to do his job, they can’t get a guilty verdict or won’t run a final trial.

I’m lost for words and have absolutely no faith in CPS, their decision making, or the justice system.

This is not just a case for the police, but shows the greater community that if you’re decent and law abiding, witness a crime and want to help…..you’ll have the book thrown at you.

However if you want to fight to police……it’s perfectly fine to do so.

[Rosewood Farm's Rob @Rosewood_Farm]

The recent heatwave wasn't just a 'nice bit of weather', the consequences are serious and the cranks don't want to face up to the reality of the implications for food production.

[Oceana UK @OceanaUK]

🚨 HUGE heap of dead sharks found on UK beach were likely tossed aside as bycatch by industrial fishing vessels 🦈

Over the last few days, HUNDREDS of dead sharks and fish have been discovered 💔

Our seas deserve better than this
https://t.co/GvA0n7JinF

[Crazy Moments @Crazymoments01]

"A night I’ll never forget. -40°C outside, but inside this ice dugout, I found a different kind of warmth. Luna, a wild snowy owl, joined me for shelter. No fear, no control just two living things surviving the polar dark together. Nature doesn’t need a language to find peace."

[Ron Granger @reglimagrain]

@russbmckenzie Have you counted the potential fertile spikelets per ear Russ - many varieties have a similar number - its the gap between the spikelets that determine ear size - laxer v compact
Fertility of the ear, ie grain set will determine seed number per ear which could be interesting

[Tom Jewers @cutlerstom]

Replicated N response plots. 0-300kgs N. I’m hazarding a guess based on previous trials that zero Nitrogen applied will yield around 4.5t/ha, 190kgs N will be economic optimum and around 9.75t/ha this year. Previous crop was winter beans.

[Zia Yusuf @ZiaYusufUK]

The fact that the two men who brutalised a police officer at Manchester Airport will NOT face a retrial is a shocking disgrace.

It is a huge miscarriage of justice and they only ever seem to go in one direction.

The British justice system is BROKEN.

Time for changes.