I first used the phrase, ‘cult of tidiness’, when writing a piece for the Chris Packham inspired ‘A People’s Manifesto for Wildlife.’

If you would like to be able to comment - and see more images - please pop over to the Substack version.

It was a real privilege to be among so many impressive people - we were all ‘given’ ministries about which to write our own manifestos - though when he first phoned to invite me to be ‘Minister for Hedgerows’ I obviously heard ‘Minister for Hedgehogs’ and thought, well, that is niche, but I will have it!! 

The reason I was given that job was thanks to the book I had recently written, Linescapes, Remapping and Reconnecting Britain’s Fragmented Wildlife. This book takes a look the linear features we have built across the land and examines how the hedges, walls, canals, railways, roads etc can either help or hinder wildlife.

And you won’t need to be a rocket scientist to see where the idea for that book came from … the fragmentation of our landscape is particularly felt by hedgehogs. And this very petition is part of the wide campaign to try and overcome this problem.

Anyway, back to the Cult of Tidiness. Those of you who have heard me speak will realise I sometimes get a little bit carried away when on this subject. The cult demands that we selfishly keep all the little bits of our garden or parks for us, that we exclude nature at every turn. We create  extra rooms where our gardens used to be, complete with plastic grass and fake ivy dripping from the fences.

That is the extreme version - but also the desire to mow, cut, trim, every corner - again removing the chance of wildlife sharing the space with us - is still awful.

I joke that the high priests of the Cult are the manufactures of mowers and strimmers, herbicide and insecticide. But the point is serious. Around 70% of the UK is managed by farmers - and we have very little chance to influence the amount of sharing that goes on there unless we can source good organic vegetables. Our gardens make up less than 5% of area of England - and around 87% of us has access to a garden. We do have a chance to influence what goes on there.

This is why the Hedgehog Street top tips are so important - yes, we want to see great changes in the farmed landscape, but recognise we need to start working with people who can actually do good themselves.

Back to the point … I wanted to share with you an example from my local park in east Oxford - a park which I have lived close to for over 30 years and I love dearly - where those managing the land managed to get the cult of tidiness so very very wrong!

As the picture shows, they strimmed and mowed the bed of wildflowers down to the ground, BUT, left the litter!! It made me realise I have been too hard on the cult of tidiness - I want it, need it and embrace it when it comes into the dropping of litter!!!! But not when it comes to destroying nature.

The weather has been gorgeous, people are using the park for what it should be used for - they are having kids parties, meeting friends, relaxing. But … there is, I realise, a blindness when it comes to the clearing up … they have managed to bring all they use with them but are happy leaving what they don’t use behind. Now, bins are a great thing, but they are emptied sporadically, and over night the foxes get to work, and in the morning the gulls spread this further.

Litter is evidence of stupidity. Of a complete failure to work with a community - and a lack of awareness of the damage that it causes to wildlife. So - I recant my opposition to (part of) the cult of tidiness - PLEASE - let us embrace an ethic of leaving things better than we found them?

I write this with my council tax bill in front of me … I know that there are pressures on councils, but when we are being asked to pay such eye-watering amounts, it would be good if we got the basics right!

Other mutterings of mine can be found on the blossoming Bluesky!