Ignore scaremongering over East Field plans

Battlemead Common was purchased by the Royal Borough nearly three years ago as public open space.

It was also to provide the missing link in the Boundary Walk and the Millennium

Walk (from Hurley) that follows the Boundary Walk from Pinkneys Green.

Less than half of the open space is currently open to the public and the missing link has so far been walked twice (for Rotary’s annual Boundary Walk in 2019 and for the 20th anniversary of the inaugural Millennium Walk in 2020, organised by Maidenhead Civic Society and East Berks Ramblers).

The only path across the new common to the Thames is the northern perimeter path, so there is currently no circular walk.

Unfortunately this path last winter was only usable by walkers wearing wellingtons.

There is a car park but it is not currently accessible so drivers park illegally at the entrance.

We want the Royal Borough to expedite the opening of the car park and to open up the Causeway Path - and only the Causeway Path - across the East Field throughout the year.

Unlike Wild Cookham and Wild Maidenhead we have listened to the views of others with an interest in Battlemead and have never sought access to the whole of the East Field.

The causeway path on this field is a

legacy from when gravel, from the construction of the Jubilee River, was brought up by barge and hauled by lorries to Summerleaze.

It is a wide path that is flanked by newly created wetlands and gives spectacular view of Cliveden and the Cliveden Reach.

We accept that in the winter migratory wildfowl, unfamiliar with the area, may be startled, but this is a large field with several wetland areas so the path, to be