Message from the owners of the Copse:

I just wanted to let you know our volunteers began to try and improve the drainage of the Brenda Parker Way yesterday. We had permission to go into the landowner's garden behind us, and he showed our volunteers where the drains are that need digging out. They started to open them up and found some old drainage pipes, so they were lifted, cleaned and replaced. Water started draining away as they were working, which was amazing!

We have started opening up some 'ponds' to create the wet area in our woodland alongside the footpath, which will also hopefully catch water as it comes down the hill and reduce the waterlogging of the footpath.

We will wait until it dries out, then tip the spoil from the ponds back onto the footpath to raise its level to where it should be, put extra drains in where necessary and cover with geo matting and scalpings. We will use some of the funds from the donations received and hope that will be acceptable. It does look a bit 'untidy' at the moment, but we hope the conditions will be right for us to hit this job hard in May and to get this stretch of the Brenda Parker Way in better order. It is still walkable and should be increasingly so now.