Major cuts in Wanstead Park

No, I'm not talking about any possible cuts in the budget allocated to Wanstead Park or even Epping Forest as a whole, I am talking about cuts to vegetation adjacent to some of the lakes in the Park.

This has taken place over the last week or so, at the end of August, and I am sure that in many places the spread of plants - particularly bramble - was required to be restricted in some way. However, I am not so sure that the end of August is the best time to do it. It is perhaps unlikely that there will have been nesting birds - though possible - but the plants along the edge of Heronry Pond, for example, are alive at this time of year with insects: butterflies, hoverflies and damselflies amongst them.

Flowers by the Perch Pond earlier in August

But it is the lake-edge at the east end of Perch Pond that has particularly distressed me. In the middle of August the edge of the lake is a glory of colours with a variety of plants in flower, and plenty of insects making use of them. If you think about it, Epping Forest isn't the best place to see lots of plants in flower; it is usually on the banks of rivers and lakes that we have our most prolific displays, and may be one of the reasons that we visit these places. Now this display has been slashed to ground-level, and the machine that was used has even cut the emergent vegetation for up to a metre or so out into the water. This does happen yearly, and it always recovers to display again the next year, but why is it necessary to do it at this time, before the flowering has finished? Plants that have been "massacred" include willow-herb, bur-reed, fleabane, ragwort, hawkweeds and both purple and yellow loosestrife.

Perch Pond, Wanstead Park. The lake-side in late AugustA couple of weeks ago I wrote an article about over-enthusiastic cutting of grass in the Park (here). It is a shame that more of the effort involved in doing work of this sort could not be put into clearing some of the paths in the Park; the bramble that has been cleared by Heronry Pond where it was not a nuisance is elsewhere obstructing paths so that they are all but impassable - by the Shoulder of Mutton Pond the path along the east edge of this is in a very poor state.

I am tempted to "send a letter", but from past experience any such approaches usually meet a brick-wall. There's the choice - a brick wall or flowers and insects.

Paul Ferris, 28th August

Olympic threat to Wanstead Flats?

The Metropolitan Police are intending to use part of Wanstead Flats as a temporary briefing and deployment centre for officers working on the Olympics policing operations. This is intended to be for a period of 90 days, which includes construction of the site, use of the site during the Olympic and Paralympic games, and the time taken to dismantle the site.

Later this month (August) the police are planning to start a period of public and planning consultation about the proposal, and we are told that "Any move would first be subject to a public consultation to gather feedback from people living in the area, and address any concerns about the restrictions it would put on public use of the area during the games."

The Metropolitan Police Service (MPS) has set up a website (available here) to explain more about the proposals, explaining why Wanstead Flats has been chosen, how it would be used and what is being done to try to mitigate public concerns.

Prior to the start of the public exhibitions relating to the proposals, a meeting was held at the Cherry Tree cafe in Wanstead on August 16th, called by the police together with the Superintendent of Epping Forest and attended by (mostly) invited members of the local community, apparently chosen because of blogs and websites which have expressed concerns. Representatives from other groups present included those from the Wren Conservation and Wildlife Group, Friends of Wanstead Park, East London Nature and the Wanstead Parklands Community Project. A report on that meeting is presented below.

Site map of proposed police briefing centre on Wanstead Flats

On Monday 16 August about 30 local residents and representatives of many local organisations gathered at the Cherry Tree Café in Wanstead for a meeting arranged by the Metropolitan Police and the Conservators of Epping Forest.  The purpose of the meeting was to brief us about the proposal to enclose 8 acres of Wanstead Flats to develop a temporary Police Muster Station during the summer of 2012. The organizers were keen to gauge the depth of local concerns about the proposals and to address these issues.

As part of the introductory comments it was stated that policing the Olympics will be the biggest peace time operation undertaken in this country and will require very careful planning!  A considerable number of officers will be drafted into the London area to cover the three zones where the various aspects of the Olympic Games are due to be held.  A Muster Station in the east end is required as the main track events are based in the Olympic Park at Stratford along with other sports in nearby centers. The duty Officers required regular updates for their effective deployment.  We were told that there had been an extensive search for a suitable location and eventually the site on Wanstead flats had been identified which met the long list of the necessary criteria. These included size, an open site with no trees, firm ground conditions, some distance from any residential development, closeness to the Stratford area and affordability.  Several suitable prime sites had apparently been quickly snapped up for some of the cultural activities planned to complement the Games. The fact that information about this proposal had not been available until recently was due the General Election and the resulting changes in Government.  It was now possible to have open discussions about the implications of this proposal with the local community and their concerns would be taken on board.

An informative website www.wanstead-mbdc.co.uk and the hotline number 0800 9778791 has been established for messages and comments. This will be improved as a result of comments made at the meeting on 16 August. Do please look at this website for further information and for updates.

Many of the local residents are concerned that there is apparently no fallback site ishould it prove impossible to use the site on Wanstead Flats. Perhaps there is somewhere hidden away, but for reasons known only unto the Police, this was not revealed.

However, the proposed use of this site on Wanstead Flats has run into a legal problem. The Epping Forest Act of 1878 prohibits the enclosure of Epping Forest Land other than for conservation measures. Discussions have been held with the Home Office for some months to find a way to overcome this problem.  A possible way round this is to proceed with a Legislative Reform Order, which would be a temporary amendment to the 1878 Act.  This would be very specific and time bounded – i.e. for only 90 days and for the 8 acres of land required for this particular purpose. It would run from July to September 2012. This matter is currently being considered by the Home Secretary, but public consultation on this is required. This is likely to take place early in September and then the matter will be discussed further in Parliament.  For further details about Legislative Reform Orders click here.

There is a deep concern within the Forest Community that this process will set a precedent or that this will be seen as an opportunity to take land from the Forest in the future. All of us will need reassurance that any 'enclosure' will be of a temporary nature and that the land will be returned to the Forest at the end of the 90 days i.e. in September 2012.  Whilst we were informed that this should be so and that over the years the Conservators have strongly opposed any loss of land from the Forest, we fear that this might open the way for a potential future loss of land from the Forest.  The Police stressed that they had no wish to loose the goodwill of the local community over this matter.

Should the Legislative Reform Order come into effect then it would be possible to go ahead legally with this proposal. But there are still further hurdles to be overcome as this proposal still has to be approved by the Epping Forest and Commons Committee and then the proposal has to go before the Redbridge Planning Committee.  This will be in few months time and will require various detailed impact assessments. These will give much more information about the proposals and inevitably will be examined very closely by the concerned local groups.

The Conservators have negotiated a fee of £170,000 should this proposal go ahead. This money is to be spent on some improvement project for the Flats.

If the proposal gets the go-ahead then we were reassured that the 90 days proposed would be sufficient to construct, operate and dismantle the site. The Metropolitan Police use specialist contractors with experience in erecting fencing and bringing in the required infrastructure and protective ground covers as similar briefing stations are prepared on a regular basis to ensure public safety at events such as the Notting Hill Carnival.

The proposed 8 acre Muster Station would require a tall perimeter wire fence enclosing a number of portacabins, extensive marquees as well as sufficient for stabling for 40 horses along with any necessary offices and catering facilities.  The marquees will provide cover for the large numbers of officers for their meals and briefing sessions.  Details of the site are shown on the map. A significant part of the area will be a vehicle park. The fence will be secured with spikes driven into ground and every care taken to minimize damage to the existing land surface when lowering the various units into place.

The proposed location will be south of the SSSI site and will largely cover the hard standing of the existing Fairground site, with the main access route in and out onto Centre Road. Access to the horse rides and footpaths round the site will be maintained, although obviously there will be no public access through the site itself.

Such a compound will require lighting, but special lights will be used to minimize light pollution and state of the art generators will be used to supply the required power: these are claimed to be very quiet. More details will be in the planning application which has to set out mitigation proposals regarding loss of tranquillity and any visual intrusion.

There is water on site and sewerage will be dealt with by linking to the main sewers in nearby roads.

It is not anticipated that helicopters would use the site other than for medical emergencies.

The Police and their advisors have been working on potential traffic problems, but this information has not yet been made public.  A full traffic impact assessment will have to be part of the planning application and obviously will be subject to close local scrutiny!  It is proposed that up to 30 coaches and 80 minibuses will leave the site on the Flats, turning left into Centre Drive and then onto the Green Man Roundabout. They would not necessarily be all travelling at the same time. Coming back to the site, the coaches and minibuses will have to turn across the traffic, unless of course they return via Lake House Road!  A number of local people voiced concerns about the overall increase in traffic movements and the specific congestion points as all too often vehicles grind to a standstill on many of these sections of road.

The police horses will be ridden along local roads to the Olympic site as this provides them with their necessary exercise!

An Environmental Impact Assessment has been undertaken, but this has not yet made public, so we are unaware of its scope, its content or the recommended mitigation proposals.  It was agreed that the input of local naturalists would be invaluable in helping to set up monitoring before, during and after the establishment of the site, should it go ahead.

Parts of Wanstead Flats very close to the site are noted for skylarks and meadow pipits, and the site itself could be a flight-line for bats. Skylarks and bats are protected by the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981 and require special protection measures to avoid harm.  The site itself adds to the diversity of habitats on Wanstead Flats, and is an unusual one; it may well harbour some unusual plants and invertebrates.

To help disseminate information about the proposals several public exhibitions have been arranged and a further one should be arranged.  Do go along to make your comments.

The fixed dates are:

Wednesday 25 August 4.00pm – 8.00pm at the Cherry Tree Café, Woodbine Place, E11 2RH

Saturday 4 September 10.00am – 4.00pm at the Cherry Tree Café, Woodbine Place, E11 2RH

Saturday 11 September 10.00am – 4.00pm at the Methodist Church, Cann Hall Road, E11 3NN

Thursday 16 September  4.00pm – 8 .00pm at the Cann Hall Methodist Church, Cann Hall Rd.  E11 3NN.

The Fairground site has been chosen for a planned protest picnic on Sunday 5 September at 1.00pm. This event clashes with the Forest Festival on Chingford Plain.

At the meeting on 16th August, both the Met police and the City of London Corporation were hand-delivered an invitation to an open public meeting organised by residents themselves. The proposed date for this public meeting is 6th October at 7pm at Durning Hall Community Centre, Earlham Grove, Forest Gate.

See www.savewansteadflats for more details.

For perhaps a balanced and reasonable view on this issue, see here

An ecology survey is available at: http://www.met.police.uk/co/wanstead_flats.htm#q11

A habitat survey is available at : http://www.met.police.uk/co/docs/WMBDC_Phase_1_Habitat_Report.pdf

For a historic view of threats to the Forest as percieved by the people that love it, see here

Paul Ferris, 18 August 2010

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Cuts to the Grassland in Epping Forest

Apart from the excessively dry period during spring and summer, causing our grasslands (and lawns?) to become desert-parched - and notwithstanding the fires that are traditionally beginning to break out on the Flats and elsewhere - some of our grasslands have been severely depleted by those employed to manage them.

Well - you know who I mean; grass-cutting teams have been out in Wanstead Park, and apparently - from personal correspondence - to other parts of the Forest too. As I walk into Wanstead Park from Northumberland Avenue, I see that the verge on the edge of the Plain between the kiosk and the Temple is getting wider all the time. This threatens the very scarce colony of Harebells that exist just here. Similarly - although I can't say that it has widened this year - the stretch at the northern side of the western Plain between the Sweet-chestnut avenue and the Heronry Pond, which is used nowadays for exhibitors at the Music in the Park event could well threaten yet more Harebells if it were extended.

The Plain, Wanstead Park in July 2010

The whole area just south of the Temple grounds is becoming more like a lawn, and the "wild" area Plain is diminishing in size and being given over to recreation such as picnic-ing, football, Kite-flying and - worst of all in my opinion - a regular let's-make-Sunday-in the-Park-noisy fitness business. The barbecues are another matter...

However, the Park and Epping Forest as a whole, needs to be shared by different human uses and recreations, and the wildlife that it consists of and which live here. It is a similar situation on Wanstead Flats - far more obviously much more given over to sports-style recreation than the Park has been. Here the football pitches - about 60 of them - by there very nature require regular cuttings and maintenance. But there are some areas (without going into details here) which appear to me to be cut unnecessarily, for no sports activities actually use them, and for many years I have been concerned about the fact that it is all-to-easy to cut just a little bit closer in to the rough grassland at each sweep of the mowing-machines. Our precious Creeping Willow is threatened in this way, as may be the possibility of a Skylark having a habitat to nest in. So in Wanstead Park, it was particularly dismaying for me to see a piece of grassland cut that was was neither a hindrance to people, nor needed for recreation, nor getting out of hand. Indeed it was one of the most attractive piece of grassland in the whole park - a lovely area between the golf course fence and the Heronry Pond, near to the newly resurfaced (why?) Warren Lane. It was for years generally low grass anyway, with enough longer stems of grass for Burnet moths to lay eggs, pupate and fly from and flowers such as Bird'sfoot Trefoil to give colour and provide an attraction for not only the day-flying moths but  Small Heath, Small Copper, Blues and other species of butterfly and insects.

Wanstead Park - excess grass-cutting

Uncut grass to the left - Bird's foot Trefoil is making a comeback already in
the lawn to the left, but too late for a whole variety of butterflies and bugs!

Not this year, though - it has been cut. There's not much there now at all, and it's not so attractive visually to humans, I suggest. Why was it cut? Who's to say and who would say? Where is the Forest ecologist in all of this and who gives the orders and who manages the work? So many times in the past I have almost cried - or at least almost exploded - when I've seen such desecration. And it just keep going on.

I had an e-mail from another well-known and respected Forest naturalist who - without prompting from me - said "The grass gang have been close shaving some of the grassy sites and they have become just areas of parched stubble in stark contrast to other areas which are full of butterflies, bugs, etc. not to mention flowers!". She followed up by saying "Cutting it so short means disaster for several species especially those that thrive in longish grass, and I wonder what happens to all the cut grass?  The cut areas look so parched at the moment. Grasslands should be a mosaic of different heights, with space for ant hills, bits of bare ground for the ruderals to grow and for the rare mining bees to inhabit, bits of thatch for beetles to hide in and of course flowers for nectar and pollen as well as colour! Longer grass suits some species of grass-hopper, shorter areas other species - not the uniform shaved pad which seems to be the 'in' feature of the moment."

She is absolutely right. There is something wrong with the management of OUR Forest.

Paul Ferris, 15th July 2010

Wild Wanstead

In April 2010 I was contacted by Lee from the Wanstead Village Directory, who asked if I'd contribute an article for the centre-spread relating to Wanstead's wildlife. I was pleased to be able to do so - an opportunity to perhaps bring to a few more people aspects of Wanstead which they might not before have considered.

A number of friendly e-mails followed, and in June the article was published as "Wild Wanstead". With permission from the Wanstead Village Directory, the article in pdf. format is available here. Please note that the file is over 3Mb in size.

(The Wanstead Village Directory is an independent directory of businesses serving Wanstead, Aldersbrook and Snaresbrook; it is delivered to households in the area and may be obtained from outlets such as Wanstead Library)

Wanstead Village Directory's website is at:     http://www.wansteadvillagedirectory.com