Plans to make the meadow stockproof to allow limited grazing have been scuppered by our neighbours, Mr and Mrs Butterfield of North Lodge Farm because they say they want to be able to access the brook personally. I had imagined that with several hundred acres at their disposal they would have looked charitably on the temporary sequestration of a narrow strip of uncultivable riverbank for the benefit of nature and the people of Keyworth but that's not so. Funding for the proposal had been gained in full from Severn Trent Water and Rushcliffe Borough Council, but without the Butterfield's agreement we can't proceed. Such mean spiritedness beggars belief and means that the voluntary wardens will have to continue to try to rake and burn the field off each autumn. This has always been a tricky undertaking as we've been at the mercy of the weather and without a reliable dry spell when labour is available, attempts are abortive. This means the thatch gets left in to rot down and replenish soil fertility, making the rank grasses lush and the species richness poorer.