Care in the community

There is a snippet of land between Chantilly Way and the back gardens of Brettgrave, snipped off from Horton Farm to the north east when Chantilly Way was laid down a few years ago. Maybe 25m by 200m, maybe about an acre.

A snippet (illustrated left) which has been the home of late for a number of horses being cared for in the community and possibly owned by members of the travelling community. As is all too common in Surrey, never mind the travellers, there have been too many horses on too little land, and the result is the mess seen. Note also the green food refuse bin, the second stray of two which I saw while out this morning. How on earth do the things stray so far from the houses to which they belong? What could some oik possibly want with such a thing? It seems rather a long winded way to cause annoyance if that was the only objective.

Horse lovers need not fret as I understand that the Care Quality Commission has been on the case. The situation is in hand, even if the only result so far is that the owners have moved their horses to a different field - this one being empty this morning - and the whole horse care order process has had to go back to the beginning again, while the horsey version of Battersea Dogs' Home remains on standby.

But I fret. Why did the roads people in their wisdom leave this bit of land to be used in this way? I can see that the Brettgrave people might not want the new road to butt onto their back gardens, but surely we could do something more slightly with the strip of land that results. Maybe plant it with brambles and  suitable small trees, the former serving to deter trespass by horses and others. Would they sell it to me for £1 on condition that I look after it?