Hesleden Ponds Update

Last month I published an article on these pages about a request I'd submitted to the council asking for an initial assessment of the ponds along a stretch of the Haswell to Hart walkway at the bottom of East Terrace in Hesleden.

This followed contact I'd had from residents in the village concerned about the condition of the ponds (please see posts dated Tuesday 26 May and Thursday 4 June 2020 for background information).

Following those initial investigatory works I asked the services involved if the ecologist's report could identify a range of options to consider to address the concerns of residents about the condition of the ponds. I have now received an update from the Environment and Design section at county hall and their response is set out below in full:

Good Afternoon Rob,

Pleased that you found the ecologist’s report useful as a start point for highlighting key areas that would merit works/intervention. As you’ll be aware, my team are providers of specialist advice whereas the issue of to what extent ‘who can do what’ would fall within the Clean & Green area of service, specifically the Countryside team to consider and comment on.

There may be opportunity for them to look into the deepening of the Station House pond potentially over October /November, but I am advised from the Ecology section that improvement works on the other site would require substantial planning and resources, which would therefore need a longer term view.

I have asked the Countryside services lead to provide a position on possibilities going forward.

As can be seen from the comments above officers from the Countryside team will now consider options and then recommend which works can be carried out and when. It appears there are two separate strands to this issue; first there are fairly short term works which could be carried out at the appropriate time later this year, and there are more detailed works which will require detailed planning and substantial resources.

With this in mind it would seem reasonable to await a more detailed assessment from the Countryside services team which will identify a works plan, both for the short term (which appear from the comments above to be seasonal) and for those works which may prove to be more complex.

I'll update on developments as soon as I have further details.