Can the LVRPA be trusted? You decide…

Save Lea Marshes attended the LVRPA’s Executive Committee meeting today (25 February 2021), to speak to item 7 on the agenda about the Landscape and Open Space Project List. This is a list of all the things the LVRPA would like to do to the open spaces in the Park at some point in the future, collated from lots of different sources. Here is a copy of the speech we made:

Thank you, as always, for the opportunity to speak.

I was intending to ask, today, for an update on the sluice for the Middlesex Filter Beds. There is, if you recall, an expectation from Natural England that they will be filled with water but that you’ve been finding it difficult to fulfil this obligation because the generator that pumped water into the filter beds has been stolen. That’s why we were delighted when Chris Kennedy told us – several years ago now – that capital funding had been found to install a sluice. We asked for an update in July and again in November and were told that the delays were a result of the pandemic, that it has been hard to get quotes, but the project is still very much at the forefront of officer’s minds.

So, imagine my surprise when I looked at the list of landscape and open spaces projects and discovered that there is no sense of urgency at all surrounding this project, that ‘completion in three years’ is only a possibility and that there is no source of funding specified. Please can you explain why this project, which is of critical importance to the south of the Park, isn’t more advanced? Will you commit to giving it priority today?

Under discussion today is a request for this list to be shared with local people so that a consultation can take place. This seems rather tone deaf, to put it mildly, particularly when it comes to the Waterworks Meadow. Your plans for the Meadow – all focusing on increasing the infrastructure for events – have already received feedback from the local community.

Bee on yarrow on the Waterworks Meadow

Over 300 people objected in writing to the Waterworks Festival; the largest number of objections Waltham Forest licensing team has ever received.

And Save Lea Marshes has raised £5000 from local people to carry out surveys of the site because they want to rewild the Meadow.

Together, these give a very clear indication that local people do not want events on the site. And, so, can I be confident that you will accept this feedback on your proposals and remove those connected with increasing event-related infrastructure on the Waterworks Meadow from the list immediately?

It’s important to point out here, that we were also under the impression we had secured a moratorium on events until the surveys being carried out by SLM and your officers were complete and the data had been analysed. This document makes no mention of that and I think it should. Not least because we have emerging evidence from the surveys– which we’ll be sharing with Cath Patrick shortly – that would make these works totally inappropriate and harmful to wildlife.

After the speech, we were told that the plans for the Middlesex Filter Beds are still a priority and the list is just a starting point, that the LVRPA will listen. It will ‘remove things from the list and add things to the list’. It didn’t, of course, agree to remove the items related to events-related infrastructure and the Waterworks Meadow straight away; that would be far too responsive! Instead, I guess, we’ll have to spend time annotating the document and making representations. And, if it does go public and they are promising, we’ll need all of you to make representations too!

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