Compensation for the Police use of Wanstead Flats during the Olympics
The following request has been made by the Corporation of the City of London:
From the Corporation of the City of London: Police use of Wanstead Flats for 2012 Games
As compensation for the Police using part of Wanstead Flats as a Briefing and Deployment Centre for 90 days spanning the Olympic and Paralympic Games in 2012 the City of London will be receiving £170,000. The Police will be returning the land to its original condition on top of the £170,000 compensation money which will be spent locally improving an area of Wanstead Flats.
We would like Forest users to vote for the project they would like to see the money spent on. If you would like more information on these projects including how to vote, download the Wanstead Flats Police Muster Site Consultation (PDF, 538kb). Alternatively vote in person, a display of the projects and chance to vote will be at the following locations during October:
- Capel Road Football Changing Rooms: Sunday 2 October 12noon - 3pm
- Aldersbrook Library: date to be confirmed
If you would like further information please go to the Police use of Wanstead Flats page
This consultation ends on 31 October 2011. If you would like to be kept in touch regarding the development of it, please email
As you will see, this is an opportunity to vote on how the (meagre) £170,000 compensation will be spent, with four options being proposed. These - briefly - are:
- Alexandra Lake - improve the habitat
- Bush Wood - enhance the tree avenues
- Capel Road - renovate the changing rooms
- Jubilee Pond - reline the damaged pond and find new sources of water
All of these are of course very worthwhile requirements, but to my mind it is Alexandra Lake that is the most deserving. In Bush Wood. one of the tree avenues - Evelyns Avenue was replanted some years ago, with replacement lime trees, and the avenue itself was cleared of invasive vegetation. After any such work on the Forest, it is important that the newly-planted trees are cared for and the invasive vegetation kept under control - perhaps this should form part of the normal management costs?
The Changing Rooms in Capel Road provide a facility for users of the Flats that actually pay for this service, in the form of bookings for the use of the football pitches and the like. Should not the costs of any required renovation come from this income?
The problems with leakage from Jubilee Pond - the damage that is referred to in the consultation document - has been evident almost since the newly rebuilt pond was opened in 2003. This would seem to indicate a problem with the construction, and to my mind any costs involved in fixing this should have come from the constructors - not from the Police compensation money.
Alexandra Lake forms one of the most aesthetically pleasing aspects of Wanstead Flats. The view of the lake from Aldersbrook Road in passing or from the Flats themselves in walking or riding, is a pleasure. However, that view is fast being lost. From the row of shops in Aldersbrook Road, it is becoming difficult to even see the lake across the road, and the same is happening because of the growth of willows and birch along the southern edge. The edges of the two islands are so thick with willow that it almost seems that there is just one island at times. The vegetation growth near Aldersbrook Road has come about because of a change that was made to the edge of the lake by the City of London Corporation some years ago. Where there had been a pebble "beach" since the creation of the lake in the early years of the 20th century, a bank was built. This disturbance encouraged the vegetation growth and blocked the outflow from a surface-water drain on Aldersbrook Road. Similarly, a "dumping" of dredgings from the lake on the islands years before encouraged the islands' vegetation to become more luxuriant. These problems were caused by inappropriate work by those who should have managed the lake in a better way.
It is vitally important that these problems are addressed before the pleasure of the lake is further lost.
Paul Ferris, 4th October 2011