Please take some time to have a look at the proposals Hackney Council have to turn Hackney Marshes into an ‘event space’ for four months every year, between 1st May and 31st August.
Please sign our petition against the proposals here
You can download this poster against the plans for your Marshes under threat-5
You can also have your say through this PINS survey
There is considerable information on the proposals from Hackney Marshes Users Group and statements from Birbeck Orient Football Club and Stoke Newington Cricket Club
The proposals are based on last year’s Hackney Weekender on the marshes during which time all public access to the marshes was blocked and thousands of pounds of damage was done to this precious green space, including compacting and scarring by heavy vehicles serving the festival. There is a significant file of evidence relating to the damage caused on the HMUG webpage.
Local football clubs have already suffered the loss of their historic football pitches on East Marsh which was requisitioned for the Olympics (and to date has not been restored). Their season has been adversely affected by the damage to incurred 23 pitches, already under strain due to loss of 11 pitches at East Marsh. The cricket season was completely called off due to the damage incurred.
‘Drop in’ events will take place about the proposals on
Wednesday 17 April, 4pm to 8pm
Hackney Marshes Centre, Hackney Marshes, Homerton Road, E9 5PF
I have a lot of documentation relating to the original LDA land-grab when our marshes – supposedly given as free public open space IN PERPETUITY to the people, in Hackney in 1894 and in Leyton in 1905, when they were freely dislammased by common consent – were compulsorily enclosed and trashed for the 2012 Olympic Games.
This includes references to wildlife and botanical/ecological surveys done of Hackney Marshes at the time (circa 2007) and in the five years or so before.
I am not an ecologist but if you would like ot incorporate this data in anything you are writing in, please contact me at katya@leamarsh.com and I will try to find a way to send it to you – I only have it on a computer that uses floppy disks, and it is becoming almost impossible to find anywhere that has internet access that also has facilities for reading floppies – at present I am relying on Lea Bridge Library (which is only open for short hours on four days of the week) and do not know of anywhere else.
Katy Andrews.
Great to have SLM springing into action. That link you give isn’t so much a statement by HMUG (we hadn’t seen the proposals at that stage, just a preliminary letter) as a first alert and an appeal for people’s views. We’re pulling stuff together day by day and will be posting more as quickly & often as we can. It’ll be really helpful if people give their views on our forum at that link, http://sustainablehackney.org.uk/group/hmug/forum/topics/major-events-on-the-marshes-every-summer
We can do with practical help such as leafleting & talking to people on the marsh and at the council drop-ins.
The ‘Sustain Hackney’ link you have to comments on the proposed major events on Hackney Marshes links to the Hackney Marshes User Group (HMUG) discussion. HMUG is hosted on Sustainable Hackney’s website but is a seperate organisation.
Sustainable Hackney will also be opposing exploitation of the marshes for inappriately large entertainment events.
Here is a link directly to the survey where you can either support or not support this proposal and explain why, takes 3 minutes or less, depending on how much you would like to whine 🙂
https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/PINSHackneyMarshes
PLEASE VOTE NO