Malign Frequencies: Further Transmissions from Horsingdon, No.26: Anomalous Stairways

A short flight of concrete stairs, leading to a small, unremarkable parcel of waste ground entirely enclosed by a menacing steel palisade, and only accessible via a sturdy, locked gate. Increasingly, not an uncommon sight in and around Horsingdon (they are especially visible in the vicinty of Horsingdn Woods).

Whilst they suggest interventions of officaldom, no one is entirely sure who is building these strange and seemingly pointless bulwarks against - what appear to be  - entirely innocuous scraps of the local landscape. Horsingdon Borough Council have, at any rate, remained ambivalent regarding their involvement in the construction of these anomalous stairways: minutes from a recent meeting of the Heritage Assets Working Group, which reports to the Committee for Planning and Building Control, offer the vague disclosure that some Council members may have been ‘working closely with a number of external agencies in the resolution of the matter’; in addition to which, I have heard rumour that the Council has circulated a less-public memorandum to certain of its workers, warning them that, on no account, should they enter these cordoned-off stairways.