Ilkeston, Derbyshire have comfortably sized houses in a quiet corner of the East Midlands.  People whose ages ranging from 49 to 68 took it upon themselves to strike back when the council stopped mowing the communal green space opposite their redbrick houses as part of a borough-wide rewilding scheme. As the grass reached hip height, fears of dog poo, litter and ticks spread. Erewash Valley contains 650 acres (260 hectares) that the Borough council is responsible for as the Council aims to benefit people’s health and wellbeing, improve biodiversity and reduce the authority’s carbon footprint. Residents felt there was nowhere for visiting grandchildren to run amok or play football. The revolt gained momentum when a 60-year-old customer service worker Martin White  “ Looking out of my window, I just couldn’t see the whole street was getting their hands dirty raking up the shorn grass  and packing it in wheelbarrows. There were five lawnmowers on the go. It brought the community together. Barclay 68 who filmed the revolt published it on Facebook, which went viral. Sun emerging through the clouds as the grass flying up from the mower blades the scene appears less of anti-council insurgency.  Derbyshire County council have embraced rewilding on public land, with nearly one in six species in th4 UK at risk of extinction, with flowering plants decreasing in number and flying insect population reduced by up to 78 per cent over the past 20 years, 97 per cent of species-rich grassland now lost.

The scheme Wild About Erewash, was signed off by the council in march 24 and has seen most of the borough’s green spaces adopt a more natural wild look with the stopping of formal planting, hanging baskets been removed, weed-killer use has been reduced and long grass is now the norm in parks and on road verges. Mowing is mostly confined to recreational areas and margins, which indeed will create paths for walkers.