timeimmortal

Nicholas, who we’ve not heard from in a while, writes in with some relieving clarification concerning the controversy in Bristol, England, over a proposed plan to trim the hedges in a spot notorious for being a gay rendezvous (and the charge made by an LGBT group there that trimming the verge is tantamount to a hate crime, essentially).

Not quite. Bristol City Council is clearing some scrub, as part of their management plan for the Downs. The LGB group of Council employees commented that this might be seen as discriminatory. The Council’s Downs Committee decided that it isn’t, and they will carry on clearing the scrub.
(This Is Bristol)

The report of the Downs Ranger is here:
(Link)

Well, that’s something of a relief! And looky here…another Brit not afraid to speak with a bit of common sense!

..former Lord Mayor, Tory councillor for Stoke Bishop, and Downs Committee member Peter Abraham rubbished suggestions of discrimination.

“How can it be discriminatory to clear land that might stop what is an illegal practice?” he said.

The report says: “It is important to recognise that the area is part of the Avon Gorge Site of Special Scientific Interest and removal of scrub is in fact driven by policy imperatives to open up this part of the Downs and Gorge landscape, which has become overgrown over the past two decades, damaging the area’s wildlife value — in particular the gorge’s plant communities.”

So it looks like the brush clearing will go ahead. Thank goodness that at least one town council in Britain has demonstrated a refusal to cave in to absurd complaints from the thin-skinned. And pace what Mr. Abraham noted, if this process of cleaning up an area to improve its wildlife value and reduce damage to the local flora also happens to make the place unfeasible as a gay hookup spot, more’s the better.