Geograph - photograph every grid square

Cowslips and a rabbit by Tesco's petrol filling station

Warwick Tesco was built on the site of a former power station. After many years of dereliction some distinctive ruderal and scrub habitats had established on rubble and coal dust. They couldn't be retained: the substrate had to be substituted with inert fill over a geotextile but the developers must have felt they had to create 'natural' habitats to replace those lost. This is one: grass, standard trees – and cowslips (not known on the site before). When I was working I probably recommended approval of the landscaping plans. I wish now I had made more of a fuss and insisted on either real habitat creation and management, or conventional landscaping using the whole palette of trees, shrubs and groundcovers. Instead there is this strange halfway house. Other parts of the site are developing into an unchecked forest of buddleia, alder seedlings and brambles: not what was intended. There is no management so it will be interesting to see what succession takes place next.