We’ve been banned from enjoying popular activity in our local park by jobsworth council – it’s heavy-handed
FURIOUS residents have blasted their council for stopping them enjoying a popular activity at the local park.
Outrage was sparked when families and their children were officially banned from collecting chestnuts and mushrooms from a picturesque park in Nottingham.
The move came after Wollation Hall and Deer Park claimed “excessive” foraging was becoming harmful to the much-loved animals who graze there.
Lucy Buckle, who runs the Nottingham Forager blog, slammed the decision for being “heavy-handed”.
She told The Times: “It just seems like a really heavy-handed approach, stopping something that is sort of really quintessentially British.”
The blogger also questioned how the new rules will ever be enforced.
“I mean, are they going to send wardens out just to stop grandparents from picking blackberries with their kids?” She asked.
Lucy added that the “short-sighted” ban has enraged people in Nottingham – who are firing their frustrations at Nottingham City Council.
Nevertheless, park authorities are still instant they made the right choice to protect the wildlife.
Some locals claimed to spot visitors carrying bin bags full to the brim with chestnuts.
Meanwhile others actually took shopping trolleys to the park and loaded up.
Several foragers were also seen bashing trees with long sticks to knock their chestnuts down, according to park officials.
Now, it is believe individuals involved are actually collecting the food to sell on to others for cash – which is illegal.
Foraging has been a right under common law in England since 1217, allowing Brits to pick one of the ‘Four Fs’ – fruit, foliage, fungi or flowers.
However, the land must be public, and what is taken must be for your own use.