I took a tour of the south stretch of the riverside path that passes the park and the pond, starting at the other end, Clough Road/Stoneferry Bridge, and moving North along the river to the Croda perimeter, and then into the park.
(A) 0:00 The day before, I shot a quick video from the river bank (East) just off Stoneferry Bridge.
4:23 Barmston Drain bridge on Clough Road
4:30 Leaves Clough Road into the driveway that leads to the entrance gate to the allotments along the drain bank.
4:59 The allotment fence extending right down to the waterline.
(1) 5:07 The allotment entrance gate. I am still presuming the process to get a key is the same - put your name down with the council, and when a plot becomes available you then pay another few quid for a gate key. It's been about 10 years or more since I had a key for this allotment, so it is possible the process to obtain a key has changed since then, it could now be administered by the locals via an allotment committee, I don't know? It has 'expanded' since I had an allotment in there - not in size, but internally; I don't think there are ANY spare plots now, and they seem to have a much stronger community run place than before when it was just anonymous. There is a large well looked after communal area, and from people I know still in there it is an extremely tight knit fraternity in there.
I would expect somebody trying to do something too suspicious in there, regardless if they were a familiar face or not, would be clocked by the regulars. (You aren't allowed to plant certain types of shrubs in there and have to rat on your neighbour if the plant them, they look out for forbidden plant seeds landing and taking root, the level of detail that allotment sight is managed on a day to day basis is down to almost, literally, granular!
And like Croda, the allotment perimeter fence is always very well maintained. These guys are trying to KEEP RABBITS OUT of the allotment site, that is the level they are at with their boundary fence!
(2) 5:58 Road to the left leads to the southern end of Oak Road/Croda entrance CCTV; video continues straight along Clough Road.
8:08 Approaching Stoneferry Bridge
(3) 8:43 Leaving Stoneferry Bridge via the gated footpath, down the steps.
13:27 Opposite (nearly) from where I filmed (A)
18:05 Some of the plots adjoining Croda are metal recycling yards, and have been there for years. Their fences are not as secure as Croda's... I have always assumed there was an element of thievery going on deep along this path, penetrating this boundary fence and steeling scrap metal. I guess also the amount they can actually carry away is pretty negligible, so the boundaries are not as well maintained, and the path is far less travelled, and far more overgrown, brambly and difficult to get down at all.
18:30 Only when editing did I notice this yellow sticker at this break in the wall...
(4) 23:55 The start of the Croda boundary
25:06 There are doors and gates in the Croda boundary all along the riverside path. As with the rest of the boundary, they always look in good repair, with the shinyness of being well used and maintained.
25:14 Also Croda will be bristling with CCTV inside that plant. I've not been able to determine any cameras that would be able to actually overlook this riverside path?
NB - The camera kept losing audio for some reason...
(5) 26:20
(6) 26:55
I stopped to get some views from the embankment, particularly of inside Croda, when I spotted the dinghy, at first I dismissed it as workers on the river defences further along, or just a couple of blokes in a boat, it didn't look like Police. Then I noticed the spaniel...
28:06 "I had a quick chat with them about the case!" how pompous does that sound lol!
I basically waved hello, they acknowledged back. I then asked, obviously this is about Libby, they slow momentarily, enough to engage with me for around a minute? Talked about how bad it is, people really upset about it, Police seem so sure she's in here somewhere, etc. I then asked if that was Charlie, he said yes, I told them he and the other dogs had a big set of fans cos of Send in the Dogs! I asked them about the banks, but they said they were only 'on the river', I took from that these guys weren't getting out of the boat, and I saw no other Police anywhere on my travels in the park that morning. I wished them luck...
The 'look of resignation' I mentioned that I detected earlier on coppers that I have spoken to in the park... locals have been talking to these search teams a lot, there has been a massive engagement from the locals - obviously ANY community ANYWHERE is going to be concerned when anyone just disappears without a trace. There has been nothing but good will and positivity towards the coppers on the ground. I think they feel they are letting us down by not providing ANSWERS. I believe they think they have pretty much ZERO chance of her being alive.
So when we wish them good luck, and they can actually feel the tension and anxiety washing off us when we talk to them, they want to deliver answers to us. But what is the best case scenario the Police are working to? Finding a body. The ONLY good news the Police can bring, is an answer to 'how' and possibly allow the family to then bury her and mourn her and try to move on.
The best they can possibly give us is the worst case scenario.
So I think that is what is behind this resignation I detect... they are really trying to find her, for us and the family, but they know she is dead.
35:00 Talking about the integrity of the Croda perimter fence.
I'm not a penetration tester so I'm using my own terms here; I talk about the boundary fence in three classes of weakness;
* Phycsical weaknesses
* Strategic weaknesses
* Tactical weaknesses
Might be clumsy terminolgy but this is what I mean by that;
* Physical weakness - there are, as far as I can tell, after gong over the boundary practically inch by inch, NO PHYSICAL weaknesses. That means the fence is as close to 100% perfect as it can be. There are no missing or loose slats, no holes in the fence anywhere, it is flush to the ground the entire length, there are no holes in it. There is no possible 'penetration' of the fence. I found one possible sign of a historical repair.
* Strategic weakness - if you were tasked with 'attacking' the Croda perimeter, the first place that would seem most obvious would be the section where the fence goes through the deep woods. It would seem to provide the best opportunities to be exploited. There are also other 'strategic' weakpoints where the Beresford Park fence abuts the Croda fence at half its height, providing an easy step up over the Croda fence, trees providing an exit back out.
* Tactical weakness - can the strategic weakness be tactically exploited on the ground? As illustrated in the video, at certain points, trees could indeed provide easy access and exit routes, bypassing the 'prefect' fence.
(7) 36:06
(8) 36:45 The pond Bench
(9) 41:10 The fallen tree
The Three Park Benches; starting from the North
(B1) 42:07
(B2) 42:20
(B3) 42:36
I believe the photos taken at night of forensics inspecting a bench was one of these, though unlikely to be B1 as it is too surrounded by trees, and does not match the photo. I favour the bench being B2, because it seemed in the photos there was some very light scrub near the bench, whereas B3 is only surrounded by mown grass.
(10) 43:20
43:40 A 'weakpoint' in the fence where the park fence meets the Croda fence, providing a really easy step-up into Croda.
(11) 47:02
(12) 47:38 Outside the 'house in the park'
(13) 47:50 - The other corner of the fence with an easy step-up due to the park fence joining it at half its height, similar to 43:20
Also, the location of one of the 'drains' near Croda that Police were photographed examining.
(14) 48:22 Tactical weak points in the fence with trees providing easy access over the Croda fence.
(15) 50:02 Another drain riser, this one without a cover.
(16) 51:22 The Southern end of Oak Road at the entrance to Croda, which provided the CCTV of the runner/walker/cyclist
51:26 The CCTV is on the building on the right of the entrance road...
(2) 52:08 Back to Clough road...
