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Hugh Craddock

@pannageman.bsky.social
41 followers 72 following 69 posts

Living in Surrey and working for the Open Spaces Society. Married with one horse. Posts mainly on commons and rights of way. Posts entirely my own.

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Hugh Craddock @pannageman.bsky.social · 12/10/2026
Marian Spain had plenty to say about SSSIs on her departure a few weeks ago. naturalengland.blog.gov.uk/2026/09/29/s...
naturalengland.blog.gov.uk
SSSIs: A Golden Thread Through My Career
In this blog, Marian Spain reflects on Sites of Special Scientific Interest (SSSIs) as a golden thread through her time as Chief Executive of Natural England. Highlighting Dearne Valley Wetlands, West...
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Hugh Craddock @pannageman.bsky.social · 26/08/2026
And here's a breathless article from the BBC's technology editor in January 2026, telling us that, 'Waymo…hopes to be operating a robotaxi service in London as soon as September this year.' Journalists seem to be immune from doubting these claims. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
bbc.co.uk
Driverless taxis set to launch in UK as soon as September
Waymo has laid out plans for a robotaxi service in London with a pilot scheme due to begin in April.
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Hugh Craddock @pannageman.bsky.social · 06/08/2026
Or does the next hire simply get presented with a soiled vehicle? And good luck if you have mobility constraints and need help getting into the vehicle.
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Hugh Craddock @pannageman.bsky.social · 12/07/2026
You don’t need to tell us four times every day.
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Hugh Craddock @pannageman.bsky.social · 06/05/2026
With options to convert to football pitches and Olympic swimming pools? (Yes, I know I’m conflating area and volume.)
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Hugh Craddock @pannageman.bsky.social · 06/05/2026
How many London buses would that be?
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Hugh Craddock @pannageman.bsky.social · 17/04/2026
When Ministers have set themselves firmly on a course of action, nailing colours to the mast, it's not surprising when civil servants avoid telling Ministers the reasons against adopting that course on the basis that it's going to happen anyway, and why be 'blockers'? They should anyway.
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Hugh Craddock @pannageman.bsky.social · 11/04/2026
Mind you, nor do most MPs… .
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Hugh Craddock @pannageman.bsky.social · 27/02/2026
And it was addressed only because an off-duty officer spotted something wrong—not because of ever-rarer farm inspections. And the fine for years of non-compliance was trivial.
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Hugh Craddock @pannageman.bsky.social · 31/01/2026
Congratulations, especially to succeed on all grounds. But what does the photo show?
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Hugh Craddock @pannageman.bsky.social · 15/01/2026
Well, yes—but is that a priority when there are many other station platforms which can’t be reached at all?
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Hugh Craddock @pannageman.bsky.social · 15/01/2026
Isn’t there already level access both sides?
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Hugh Craddock @pannageman.bsky.social · 13/01/2026
Plus allegation that the poster could do the work in half the time at half the cost. Oddly, said poster is never a local councillor nor ever will stand to be one despite his or her astonishing ability.
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Hugh Craddock @pannageman.bsky.social · 03/01/2026
Lovely photos. But the first one is a road.
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Hugh Craddock @pannageman.bsky.social · 17/12/2025
Perhaps. But Network Rail would have shut its entire network on day 1. Safety first.
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Hugh Craddock @pannageman.bsky.social · 08/12/2025
This comment about wealth also misses the point that many boys were at Dulwich on local-authority free places (as I was).
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Hugh Craddock @pannageman.bsky.social · 27/11/2025
It’s now free to place an electronically-supplied State notice in the Gazette: www.thegazette.co.uk/place-notice...
thegazette.co.uk
Price list: 2025
The price list for placing a notice in The Gazette will come into effect from 1 January 2025. Pricing for public sector mandatory notices or state notices and pricing for all other notices.
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Hugh Craddock @pannageman.bsky.social · 13/11/2025
Propose a road and Members will fall over themselves in enthusiasm to push it through. Propose a route for NMUs, and they’ll worry about the impact on the unfortunate landowner. (To be fair, a new link road will be intrusive, but unlikely to be a new source of dogs worrying livestock.)
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Hugh Craddock @pannageman.bsky.social · 03/11/2025
Thinking further, @finstumpf.bsky.social is right: the amendment would apply to Wales. But as it is a devolved matter, the Government almost certainly would not accept it in this form.
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Hugh Craddock @pannageman.bsky.social · 02/11/2025
Yes.
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Hugh Craddock @pannageman.bsky.social · 10/10/2025
Oddly enough, the centrally-placed south-bound cycle path has recently been scraped and sided after years of dereliction, and now looks as good as new. But will anyone use it given the startling off-side entrance at Givons Grove roundabout, and the hatched inside-lane alternative?
Concrete cycle track looking old but clean, down centre of A24
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Hugh Craddock @pannageman.bsky.social · 10/10/2025
Presumably a formality: the presentation will have been ‘decided’ by the PCC?
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Hugh Craddock @pannageman.bsky.social · 07/10/2025
It seems that if you board at the P&R, it’s free. But board earlier or later, and you pay. Bizarre!
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Hugh Craddock @pannageman.bsky.social · 07/10/2025
Fascinating thanks. Do these temporalities have real value — and does this mean that during the vacancy, the revenues go to the Crown vice the Church?
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Hugh Craddock @pannageman.bsky.social · 15/09/2025
Yes, that’s probably universal in Europe. But ‘official’ free station-wifi can often be good in the UK (and Network Rail station-wifi usually excellent).
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Hugh Craddock @pannageman.bsky.social · 15/09/2025
Compelling throughout thank you! Should we infer from your run-in with your mobile-network operator that you weren’t testing European rail wifi-connectivity?
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Hugh Craddock @pannageman.bsky.social · 06/09/2025
As my geography lecturer used to say, we can grow bananas on Ben Nevis if we want to. It’s a question of resources.
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Hugh Craddock @pannageman.bsky.social · 08/08/2025
Why build anything to a specified standard if it's not going to be maintained to that standard?
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Hugh Craddock @pannageman.bsky.social · 08/08/2025
<Especially> those.
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Hugh Craddock @pannageman.bsky.social · 03/08/2025
“The period goes outside the quotes.” Always?
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Hugh Craddock @pannageman.bsky.social · 03/08/2025
Don’t forget Shirley Porter, who paid a £12m surcharge for her council’s targeted sales policy.
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Hugh Craddock @pannageman.bsky.social · 22/06/2025
We saw this fluttering around on a walk across Princes Coverts (nr Malden Rushett) today, and to our surprise, it landed nearby. It looks like a purple emperor, which would be a first, but aren’t they supposed to inhabit the tree canopy, not sit on the ground?
Photo of purple emperor butterfly perched on bare earth, wings outstretched, showing purple-blue sheen with white markings
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Hugh Craddock @pannageman.bsky.social · 14/06/2025
Careless driving etc must be proven, and might not be prosecuted if, eg, pedestrian steps out without looking. But on a zebra, there’s strict liability: you must be prepared to stop. As I said: you have cleared this with legal, haven’t you?
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Hugh Craddock @pannageman.bsky.social · 13/06/2025
Failing to give way on a zebra is a strict-liability offence www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/1997/24... Elsewhere, it may be evidence for careless, and inconsiderate, driving—or it may not. But on an ersatz zebra, pedestrians may <think> they have right of way. Have you run this past your legal team?
legislation.gov.uk
The Zebra, Pelican and Puffin Pedestrian Crossings Regulations and General Directions 1997
This Instrument revokes the existing Regulations relating to Zebra and Pelican pedestrian crossings and the General Directions relating to Pelican crossings and replaces them with a single Instrument....
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Hugh Craddock @pannageman.bsky.social · 12/06/2025
Is that wise? Pedestrians may justifiably assume that they have absolute priority. Yet drivers may not have the same strict liability (as they do on compliant zebras), and so be subject to neither civil nor criminal sanction.
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Hugh Craddock @pannageman.bsky.social · 11/06/2025
‘Efficiency savings’? They, and you, are using the Tories’ language, still trying to brainwash the public into believing that cuts in spending don’t lead to cuts in services. They do.
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Hugh Craddock @pannageman.bsky.social · 06/06/2025
No motorist must ever be inconvenienced unless unavoidable. NMUs? Sorry, didn’t hear you.
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Hugh Craddock @pannageman.bsky.social · 05/06/2025
Welcome to Surrey. I wonder if the council can show us any roads where encroachment has been permitted across three-quarters of the width…or even half?
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Hugh Craddock @pannageman.bsky.social · 28/05/2025
The 1702 Order really is a delight. If only all meeting minutes were modelled on its form.
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Hugh Craddock @pannageman.bsky.social · 25/05/2025
That could easily be done by secondary legislation removing the camping restriction in CROW: Sch.2,para.3: www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2000/3.... But it would still be illegal (criminal) to camp on ‘urban’ commons including many in the Lake District: that would require a primary-legislation change.
legislation.gov.uk
Countryside and Rights of Way Act 2000
An Act to make new provision for public access to the countryside; to amend the law relating to public rights of way; to enable traffic regulation orders to be made for the purpose of conserving an ar...
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Hugh Craddock @pannageman.bsky.social · 21/05/2025
Wild camping <is> lawful on Dartmoor: Supreme Court has the final word. S.10 of the Dartmoor Commons Act 1985 does confer a right to wild camp, subject to compliance with byelaws and restrictions. Blog on judgment: Wild about camping pannageman.craddocks.co.uk/2025/05/21/w...
pannageman.craddocks.co.uk
Wild about camping – PannageMan
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Hugh Craddock @pannageman.bsky.social · 19/05/2025
What happens when a passenger leaves behind vomit, beer cans or a wallet. Does the next passenger get to sort it out?
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Hugh Craddock @pannageman.bsky.social · 13/05/2025
But who maintains? You buy a house at the end of a publicly-maintained country lane—and then the obligation of public repair is abolished?
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Hugh Craddock @pannageman.bsky.social · 13/05/2025
It would politically be tough to extinguish or downgrade country lanes because almost invariably someone uses them as a sole means of access to a house or other premises and is entitled to have the highway maintained as such.
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Hugh Craddock @pannageman.bsky.social · 03/05/2025
The jug is washed? Gosh, your office is basking in the lap of luxury. Reform will soon sort out the likes of you.
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Hugh Craddock @pannageman.bsky.social · 03/05/2025
A jug lined with years of limescale rings, for there is no-one with the role, time or inclination to clean them, and no money for new ones.
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Hugh Craddock @pannageman.bsky.social · 03/05/2025
If councillors or officers are going to ‘scrutinize…down to the last biscuit’, they’ll be missing the bigger picture. But I do hope that, at their next four-hour planning committee marathon meeting, there’s nothing but a jug of water for members.
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Hugh Craddock @pannageman.bsky.social · 29/04/2025
Needs watering?
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Hugh Craddock @pannageman.bsky.social · 29/04/2025
Restricted byway order confirmed for Twitham Lane near Staple in east Kent, reuniting for horse riders Woodshole Lane (RB EE269A) and bridleway EE28 with Staple Rd for first time in post-war era. The order takes the byway to the right of the hedge in photo. More: www.craddocks.co.uk/apps/twitham...
Waymarked post in foreground, hedged boundary recedes into distance, cropped fields either side.Location map for the confirmed-order way — to the west of Staple, Kent.
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Hugh Craddock @pannageman.bsky.social · 28/04/2025
Maybe we should pay the Prime Minister a salary commensurate with the responsibility, and put an end to tiresome stories about public servants who get paid more.
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