When The Levee Breaks

About six months ago I posted a blip pondering as to why several apparently healthy trees alongside a regularly used footpath had been felled. Shortly afterwards, large fences were erected at either end of the path and no one was allowed to use it. I was subsequently told that the trees had been felled without permission by builders in connection with providing ground water drainage from a housing estate being built further up the road. I’m assuming the fencing off of the area meant some sort of agreement had been reached regarding the works.
Today, I noticed that the fence at one end had gone and a new gravel path had been laid, so I went down to have a look. Some fairly major drainage channels have been dug, the path has been moved further up the hillside (creating a sort of levee) and where the trees were is now basically a big hole. Presumably, any excess rainwater from further up the road, will run down the channels and end up in a kind of sump before eventually soaking into the ground. Whether it all works remains to be seen. Whether it was needed in the first place depends on your attitude towards allowing the development of “green” land for speculative house building.
It may be that I shouldn’t actually have been on the path today - a chap in hard hat and hi-vis gave me a very hard stare as I walked past, and when I got to the other end of the path it was still firmly fenced off. Not wishing to retrace my steps, I squeezed round the end of the barrier, annoyingly ripping my shirt in the process!
Hopefully the remaining barriers will be removed soon and we can go back to using our short cut into town - this time without having to dodge the puddles when it rains.