Thousands sign up to protect nature reserve
CAMPAIGNERS WANT IT PROTECTED FROM FUTURE DEVELOPMENT
MORE than 6,000 people have backed a campaign to protect a much-loved meadow and its habitats by granting it Local Nature Reserve (LNR) status.
A petition circulating online calls for urgent action to stop Warren Farm Nature Reserve and its surrounding spaces by the River Brent being lost to future development.
The 61-acre green space in Norwood Green was earmarked for a new training ground for Queen’s Park Rangers Football Club, but after a near decade-long battle with local opposition groups, the plan fell through last year.
Campaigners say over the years after the field stopped being used for sports, the meadow has become a “unique urban grassland” with rare and endangered species such as the skylark making it their home.
They say it is home to a host of animals and plants including yarrow pugs, yellow-necked mice, little owls, barn owls, wrynecks, ancient oak trees, rare clovers, slow-worms, toads and bats.
The bid to grant Warren Farm statutory LNR designation, which is in the power of local authorities, was the proposal of the Brent River & Canal Society (BRCS).
Its members believe the surrounding green spaces around Warren Farm, including the Jubilee Meadow, Trumper’s Field, Blackberry Corner and Fox Meadow, should be brought together to form a large LNR with Warren Farm at the centre.
In its first week of the campaign going live in January, the petition gained 3,000 signatures, which had more than doubled by the end of February.
Campaign organiser and BRCS trustee Katie Boyles said: “The Wildlife Trust has called on the government to create ‘wildbelt’ land across urban areas of Britain – land specifically designated for nature recovery.
“We don’t need to look far in Ealing because we can do just this at Warren Farm.
“With only 2% of wildflower meadows left in the UK, it is crucial that these meadow habitats are safeguarded from future development.”
“The Covid crisis has shown us the importance of access to nature, improving our health and wellbeing. We are also facing a climate emergency and with the UK being ranked as one of the most naturedepleted countries in the world, there has never been a more crucial time to protect sites such as Warren Farm.”
Since the launch, the cause has also secured further support from the Ramblers Association West London Group which has nearly 500 members, mainly made up of Ealing residents who walk through these “precious urban meadows.”
BRCS trustee Phil Belman added: “Our expert surveys have provided overwhelming evidence to justify the Statutory Local Nature Reserve designation.”
“BRCS offers our support, experience and expertise to assist council officers to achieve this vision and we stand ready to work in partnership with Ealing Council and all others who sign up to it.”
It is understood Ealing Council voted more than a decade ago to seek LNR status for the surrounding meadows but has yet to complete the work. The campaign wants to extend this commitment to the wider area including Warren Farm’s abandoned sports field.
Despite QPR’s ambition falling short of bringing the field back into use, Ealing Council leader Julian Bell said the authority has not abandoned plans to install a sports ground.
Speaking after the QPR announcement in May 2020, Cllr Bell said: “Warren Farm has always been a playing field and our ambition to develop first-class sporting facilities for the borough’s young people remains unchanged. We will be looking at how this can be funded once the Covid-19 emergency is over.”
THE controversial plan to charge non-Londoners travelling into the city could have a “detrimental impact” to west London and leave it as a “ghost town”, a top businessman has warned.
Hillingdon Chamber of Commerce chair Mike Langan said the move would be kicking businesses when they are down and hit the borough hard as an outer London region.
A journey from the village of Denham, in Buckinghamshire, to Uxbridge, for example, is just eight minutes by car.
Under plans unveiled by the Mayor of London Sadiq Khan, a Greater London Boundary Charge could be introduced for non-residents such as £3.50 a day, as a way to meet Transport for London’s financial challenges. It could be £5.50 for the most polluting vehicles.
However, Mr Langan said: “Our initial thoughts are that it’s a stupid thing for a mayor to bring in because it’s going to deter people coming into London.
“We are going to be badly affected by this boundary charge – it doesn’t make sense to me.
“London needs people to come into it to survive. This is a negative thing – if we are going to raise taxes [do it] in a different way rather than penalising everybody.”
Mr Langan also believes there will be a particular blow for business estate Stockley Park as businesses outside of London would be torn to choose between there and enterprise hub Slough.
“What would happen is Slough would win each time,” he added.
Heathrow is also a major employer in the borough which has high numbers of employees living outside of the capital.
Questions that remain over the policy for employers include who is going to cover the cost of the travel charge, and where will the money raised go.
Mr Langan added: “Sadiq has got to understand he’s got to look after the business community as well as the residents.”
According to Mr Khan, the charge proposed comes as an alternative way to raise cash if the Government does not allow London to keep the £500 million raised each year from a vehicle excise duty paid by city drivers. He believes the money collected from Londoners is used by ministers to spend “almost exclusively” outside of the capital, and the new border tax would be reinvested into London’s transport network, help reduce emissions and manage congestion.
Mr Khan said: “If ministers aren’t prepared to play fair, then we will need to consider other options to address this unfairness, such as asking people who live outside London and make journeys into Greater London by car to pay a modest charge, which would be reinvested in London’s transport network. As the independent review shows, we can’t go on expecting public transport fare-payers to subsidise the costs of road maintenance.”
However, Hillingdon Conservatives have launched a petition to stop the ‘outer London tax’ from going ahead, fearing it will also hit family and friends visiting the borough. Ruislip, Northwood and Pinner MP David Simmonds was among a group of 24 MPs to write to Mr Khan earlier this month urging him to scrap the “damaging proposal”.
He said: “Those who live near the border of Greater London will now face the prospect of a £31 charge to travel across the border.
“This will be detrimental to our community and local businesses, and it is unfair to all those who work in and use our local shops, schools and healthcare services.
“The mayor will shortly enter into negotiations with the DfT on a fresh bailout package for TfL. However, it is unacceptable that he should enter these negotiations while trying to make the threat of these extreme measures.”
CAMPAIGNERS against Low Traffic Neighbourhoods in Ealing have vowed to continue holding the council to account after a legal challenge against the authority was dropped.
A judicial review against LTN 20, 21, 24, 30 and 35 was due to be heard on February 12 but was halted due to the Experimental Traffic Orders, which empower the schemes to run, being revoked.
In December, Ealing Council’s cabinet approved changes to the controversial initiative, such as removing all bollards to allow emergency service access, and exemptions for blue badge holders within their own LTN.
The move meant a new traffic order needed to be made, which was made two days before the judicial review hearing, stopping the legal challenge from going ahead. The new ETO will go live on February 17.
It is understood an agreement was made between the council and campaign groups bringing the legal action, the Coldershaw and Midhurst Traffic Action Group (CAMTAG), and Ealing Residents Against Low Traffic Neighbourhoods for the council to cover a portion of legal costs.
CAMTAG co-ordinator Peter Mason, one of the lead claimants against LTN 21, said he was pleased the council would be covering the costs, adding: “I regard the payment of costs – and the fact that the new orders address some of the issues of emergency services access and (to a limited extent) discrimination against the disabled – as a clear admission that Ealing did not give proper consideration to the effects of these schemes before they were so hastily introduced last year.
“I believe the new Experimental Order for LTN21 – which ignores most of the comments residents have put forward in the past six months – still creates a scheme which is fundamentally flawed.
“It will cause problems which far outweigh any benefits they may have. My colleagues and I will therefore be examining closely whether this and the other Ealing orders have been properly made.
“More importantly, we will apply what we have learned about the underlying legislation to make sure that Ealing Council does not continue to ignore the views of local residents and businesses if they attempt to make these LTNs permanent.”
And he said: “As a council taxpayer, we take no pleasure in seeing how the council have wasted our money in meeting their own and our legal costs, defending their evidently flawed decision-making.
“This is on top of the pointless expenditure of installing and then removing bollards. We must remain vigilant in holding them accountable.”
A statement from Ealing Residents Against Low Traffic Neighbourhoods on the legal action said: “Actions have been ceased by agreement due to the making of the new ETO orders issued by Ealing Council.
“Ealing Council has met our legal costs.”
An Ealing Council spokesperson said: “We note that legal challenges were settled by consent and the claims withdrawn in light of new Experimental Traffic Orders (ETOs) having been made.
“In December, the council’s interim assessment of Low Traffic Neighbourhoods (LTN) recommended significant amendments to the trial schemes and when such changes are implemented, it is a legal requirement to create new ETOs.
“The changes we have implemented as a result of our interim assessment underlines the council’s ongoing commitment to amend and improve LTNs based upon feedback from residents and the emergency services.”
“We will continue to listen to the views of local people and collect a wide range of data before any final decision on the future of the schemes is made. We encourage everyone to have their say via the council’s Commonplace website.”
To find out more and have your say, go to www.ealing.gov.uk/ info/201268/low_traffic_neighbourhoods/2713/have_your_say_on_ low_traffic_neighbourhoods/1.