Last week my daughter was knocked down by a dog on the path running parallel to the Hogs Mill river. The problem was not the dog but the path which was only wide enough for two people to pass one another at that point along the path, which is made narrow by a wall of weeds that have been allowed to encroach onto the path. And when I say weeds, what I encountered was an impenetrable six feet heigh combination of brambles, stinging nettles and climbers.
Later that day I came across a council sign naming the area Elmbridge Meadows. Now my understanding is that a meadow is a field or habitat, sometimes near a river, vegetated primarily by grasses and other non-woody plants.
It appears that the paths that run the length of the meadow and a patch cleared at the northern end of the site are the only areas that the public is able to use, a small per cent of the fields. Even some of the seats have been enveloped by weeds and for most of the length of the river path, the river is obscured by overgrowth. And, laughing, at the entrance to the meadow half way along Elmbridge Avenue there is a council sign that reads "no golf", you wish, but that is a clear indication of how the fields were landscaped in the past.
Elmbridge Meadows is a valuable recreational resource that has been allowed to fall into dereliction, an act of deliberate negligence by Kingston Council.
Terence Kingston
25 Elmbridge Avenue
- Send your letters to: letters@surreycomet.co.uk
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