Balfour Beatty in retreat

After six weeks or more of more or less continuous activity, Balfour Beatty are at last in retreat. See reference 1.

The smaller, the western hole has now been filled in, leaving the swathe of flattened woodland illustrated, a swathe maybe 4 metres by 40.

And the larger, the eastern hole looks to be on the wane.

My understanding is that the work took much longer than it might otherwise have had because of sensitivities about damaging the Common, a Common which quite possibly has some standing in the world of natural heritage: it used, I believe, to be quite well known for its butterflies. Not to mention the medieval pollards. And I would have been sorry to have lost more modern trees than we have lost already. But I am not sure if these sensitivities were worth what looked to be a very large candle.

PS: in the olden days, the nearby Cricketers would be sorry for the loss of would have been a few weeks' good trade. But I don't suppose that people working on critical national infrastructure are supposed to take alcohol during their lunch breaks, even on Fridays. For all I know, smoking might be frowned on too.

Reference 1: http://psmv3.blogspot.co.uk/2017/04/mess-two.html.