AN UNNECESSARY INVESTMENT (4)

Every cloud has a silver lining. The unnecessary investment - connecting the 16 or so houses in our very rural neighbourhood to the public sewage system - has now after six months finished, the big machines have gone elsewhere, the grass is again growing on top of the soil.

And in the post this morning was a cheque for some £1,500. Compensation from the local authority for digging up our meadow, laying a pipe, and then covering it up again.

If that is the deal, then they can come and dig up our meadow as much and as often as they like.

Walter Blotscher