Why can't I see the river?

25th MAY 2024

Unfortunately tourists visiting Ross-on-Wye now have to resort to peering over the nettles to see the river, a bit like leaning over to look down a hole worried about what you're going to see.
‍
People should be able to see a lovely view of the river without having to creep up on it like they're stalking it.
‍
So why is it that Ross-on-Wye Town Council have seem to have halted proper management of the river banks?
‍
Of course there’s the “re-wilding” argument, but choosing to leave something unkempt and unmanaged is not re-wilding. At best that’s the kind of joke that Jackie from No.12 makes, nattering over the fence to neighbour Beryl about her lack of motivation to mow the lawn.
‍
Nettles? They’re good aren’t they? Has Herefordshire got a county-wide nettle shortage that we’re yet to see a press release on?
‍
Maybe nettles are needed, who knows? Going by the frequency that people mention the benefits of nettle tea online you’d imagine that down at the river you’d see groups of these people eagerly harvesting the crop, having given up PG Tips and not being able to find the elusive nettles that they crave anywhere else.
‍
In the old days when the banks were managed properly, Ross-on-Wye had a lovely view of the Wye to offer. A reminder of how nice it was can at least still be had if you visit the Hope & Anchor (recommended, and here’s their website, apparently they do an amazing Sunday lunch!).
‍
Aside from the mess down on the river banks there’s the other issue of new trees.
‍
Ross-on-Wye people can’t fail to notice all the planting of new trees over the last few years down by the river, but has this really been properly thought out?
‍
Why did it happen? It seems there’s an argument that this tree planting will help temper river bank erosion, but then again perhaps it was just more of a thought that adding a load of trees might look pretty?
‍
There are two things that will definitely be true of these new trees:

1) They will grow to obscure the view of the river even more.
2) Trees are very expensive things to maintain.

It’s fair to question why these issues down at the river don’t appear to have been thinked or thunk through properly.

Is it perhaps time to bring in some experts to really dig into all this?

The cynical might imagine Ross Town Council has a wicked plan to extort tourists that want to see the river by making money out of periscope rentals?

Maybe another one of those barely used Museum Without Walls projects is in the pipeline? A new VR experience so that tourists can fire up their smartphones and experience what it was like in yesteryear when you could see the river, through the wonders of augmented reality?

Anyway, you know what’s cheaper than getting weeds cut? That’s right. Not getting weeds cut.