Tales of the riverbank

One evening this week, soaking up the last few rays of sun, shielded from the wind by the doors of the summerhouse, I found myself hoping against hope, ridiculously, that what turned out to be an oddly-shaped twig turning this way and that in the current was, in fact, a duckling.

So that I could scoop it up in my hands and nurture it to recovery.

Ridiculous because I’d seen one struggling to stay afloat eight hours earlier, up by the Old Mill at Harnham.Its mother must have been one of a flotilla of ducks that had been attracted to the little beach area there by a couple, on their way into town, who had stopped with the best of intentions to feed them.

But the duckling, only a day or two old, had got stuck on the other side of the fast-flowing, swirling water of the mill race and was frantically cheeping and trying to get across.

I spotted it as I walked into town. I looked away briefly, looked back, and it was gone. No sign of it, and no time for it to have swum in either direction to safety.

It was a heart-tugging reminder of the random brutality of nature.

And also a reminder of how we need to treasure the waterside environment of our beautiful city, including the meadows that protect us from flooding.

If we don’t, nature will surely strike back one day at us, as casually as it did at that poor little fluffy duckling.

So why on earth would we need another supermarket on the precious flood plain off the Southampton Road?

Complete with car park ‘designed to flood naturally’.

Take a look at planning application S/2012/0873 on the Wiltshire Council website and then make sure you voice your opinion.

Its proponents boast that Sainsbury’s is a much-needed development creating a ‘gateway to our city’. With Tesco as the other gatepost, obviously.

Truly, an architectural legacy for future generations.

What’s wrong with a scrubby old patch of green field harbouring kingfishers, barn owls and even the odd Cetti’s warbler, as a ‘gateway’ that says what Salisbury’s all about?

Or what it should be about.

Readers who submit articles must agree to our terms of use. The content is the sole responsibility of the contributor and is unmoderated. But we will react if anything that breaks the rules comes to our attention. If you wish to complain about this article, contact us here