Biodiversity Net Gain at the Ice Centre?

Posted on 31 May 2021 by SLMAdmin

Last autumn the Lee Valley Regional Park Authority submitted a planning application to the London Borough of Waltham Forest to double the size of the Ice Centre on the Lea Bridge Road.  This site is Metropolitan Open Land (MOL), so the Authority needed to have very compelling arguments amounting to ‘Very Special Circumstances’ to support the application.  Foremost among these arguments was the claim that the development would produce a large “biodiversity net gain” (BNG).

Paragraph 170 of the National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF, 2019) states that

Planning policies and decisions should contribute to and enhance the natural and local environment by … providing net gains for biodiversity.

This is interpreted to mean that any development should aim to produce a Biodiversity Net Gain of at least 10%.  To enable developers to estimate net gain, the Department of Agriculture Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) has provided a calculation tool.  It is actually an Excel workbook, and may be downloaded from Natural England’s website at http://nepubprod.appspot.com/publication/5850908674228224 . 

The Lee Valley Regional Park Authority used the calculation tool to demonstrate a Biodiversity Net Gain of 30%.  This is 3 times more than the minimum expected.  Such an impressive result must have had an important influence on the Planning Committee’s decision to grant permission for the development. Were they misled by the data?

In order to assess this let’s look at how the calculation tool works. In general terms, it is very straightforward: 

  1. Calculate the “baseline” biodiversity score – that is the site’s current biodiversity value, before the development has taken place.
    1. Divide up the site into parcels of different habitat types (e.g. woodland, tarmac, buildings, short grass, rough grass, open water, etc.), and input their characteristics into the tool.  The tool assigns a biodiversity “rating” to each type, in biodiversity units per hectare.  (How it does that is quite technical, and we needn’t go into it here.)
    2. Measure the area of each parcel, and input the areas into the tool.  The tool multiplies the area and the biodiversity rating of each parcel to get its biodiversity score.
    3. The baseline biodiversity score is the sum of the scores of all of the parcels.
  2. Do exactly the same thing for the “post-development” biodiversity score.  In other words, divide up the site into parcels according to the habitat types that the site is expected to consist of after the development has taken place, and input their characteristics and areas into the tool.  The tool calculates the score of each parcel, and the sum of these scores is the post-development score.
  3. The Biodiversity Net Gain (BNG) is simply the difference between the baseline (pre-development) and post-development scores.

The results that the LVRPA obtained for the ice centre development are:

baseline score = 15.58;
post-development score = 20.39;
BNG = 4.81 (= 20.39 – 15.58) or 30.92% (= 4.81 ÷ 15.58).

An important feature of the development is that the built-up area will increase from 0.39 to 0.7029 ha.  Buildings have a biodiversity rating of zero.  So how is it possible to achieve such a large BNG, when so much habitat is being lost?  The answer lies in the areas coloured yellow in this map.

The habitat type of the yellow areas is “Urban – amenity grassland”.  It has a very low biodiversity rating, just 2 habitat units per hectare.  The yellow area at the north-east end of the building will disappear under the new building, but the much larger area at the front of the site (0.769 ha) will be enhanced to become “Grassland – other neutral grassland” and “Heathland and shrub – mixed scrub”.  These have much higher biodiversity ratings, of 7.86 and 9.79 habitat units per hectare respectively.

So in effect the LVRPA is proposing to achieve a gain in biodiversity by making changes to parts of the site that are actually irrelevant to the development.  The urban amenity grassland has such a low biodiversity value because it has been kept short by regular mowing.  Why is this happening?  We have repeatedly requested that the mowing regime should be relaxed to benefit biodiversity.  Surely the LVRPA should be in the business of promoting biodiversity, not impeding it.  Previously it has claimed that it was essential that the area be managed as closely mown ‘amenity grassland’, but without explaining why.

Here are a couple of views of the mown grass in question.

At the side of the current Lee Valley Ice Centre, mown late May 2021
In front of the Lee Valley Ice Centre, mown last week of May 2021

If the LVRPA were genuinely interested in promoting biodiversity, it would have enhanced the urban amenity grassland many years ago.  And it is possible to use the calculation tool to work out what the consequence of doing so would be.  If all of the “Urban – amenity grassland” were enhanced to the same combination of “Grassland – other neutral grassland” and “Heathland and shrub – mixed scrub”, but without any of the rest of the development, this would result in a score of 23.22, and hence a BNG of 7.64 (= 23.22 – 15.58) or 49.07% (= 7.64 ÷ 15.58).  This is much better than the 30.92% that will be achieved by the development.  Indeed the consequence of imposing the development on the site after this enhancement to the grassland would be a reduction in the biodiversity score to 20.39 – in other words a biodiversity loss of 2.83 (= 23.22 – 20.39) or 12.17% (= 2.83 ÷ 23.22).

Here is a view of the same area, unmown.

So there is a simple lesson to be drawn from this exercise.  If you want to get planning permission for a development that will cause a loss of biodiversity:

  • degrade the surroundings of the site as much as possible beforehand, so as to minimize its biodiversity;
  • include in your plans for the development details of how you will restore the biodiversity of the surroundings once planning permission has been granted.

As it happens, this is something that Defra has anticipated, as shown in its consultation on Biodiversity Net Gain (https://consult.defra.gov.uk/land-use/net-gain/supporting_documents/netgainconsultationdocument.pdf).

If net gain were made mandatory, there could be a stronger incentive for some developers and landowners to degrade their land in advance of seeking permission to develop it. There are reported cases of suspected pre-consent habitat degradation under the current planning system, although it is not known whether this is a regular occurrence. These include cases of vegetation clearance and the disturbance of protected species. Landowners may be incentivised to degrade their land to reduce environmental obligations long in advance of its sale for development. In a mandatory net gain policy this risk could be mitigated by […] clear guidance for developers and planning authorities on the relevant assessment baseline including how to take account of recent or even historic habitat states where there is evidence of deliberate habitat degradation.

If grassland is frequently mown this is surely a clear example of “vegetation clearance” leading to “deliberate habitat degradation”.

It is the Local Authority, Waltham Forest Council, who made the decision to grant permission for the new ice centre. The poor state of the development site was referred to by the Chair of the Planning Committee, Jenny Grey, who stated: “It’s a pretty scrubby, desperate bit of Metropolitan Open Land, it’s not like it’s a beautiful green meadow.” It is a pity she did not ask herself why the applicant had allowed the site to become ‘desperate’ in the first place, or whether the same applicant could be trusted with making substantial improvements to the area that should have been carried out many years ago without the addition of a large new building.

Are there any other areas of the Marshes where the land appears to be unnecessarily degraded?  If there are, perhaps they are also in the LVRPA’s sights for possible future development.

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Virtual Beating of the Bounds: 🥀Stop 8

Posted on 27 May 2021 by Caroline Day

We’re continuing our virtual version of Beating the Bounds on Leyton Marshes, compiled for those that couldn’t take part in person on Rogation Sunday.

Map of Beating of the Bounds route 2021

From Stop 7, we’ve followed the route around the outskirts of the former Pitch & Putt course – the Waterworks Meadow, crossed the Orient Way footbridge and walked down Orient Way to Stop 8. Here’s the clue:

“Allotments once at Manor Gardens stood,
But then in twenty-twelve Olympics came.
They shoved them here, so now this neighbourhood
Has less green space: disgraceful, evil, shame!“

The language here is strong – but if you learn about the history here, you may feel the same way:

🥀  Manor Garden Allotments

Manor Garden Allotments were established in 1924 by Major Arthur Villiers, philanthropist and director of Barings Bank, to provide small parcels of land for local people in that deprived area to grow vegetables. In keeping with conditions of Villiers’ bequeathal that the allotments be maintained in perpetuity, the 80 individual plots were tended for over a century by a tight-knit community. Many members belonged to long-standing East End families, with some individuals present since the 1920s.

Allotment plot 4 by Martin Slavin

The allotment gardens occupied 4.5 acres between the River Lea and the Channelsea River in Hackney Wick until they were demolished to make way for the Olympic site in the autumn of 2007.

Manor Garden Allotments being demolished, 2007

The London Development Agency (LDA) were committed, both by planning condition and commitments made during the Compulsory Purchase Order process, to provide an alternative site to relocate the plot-holders to before development work commenced and the plots demolished.

The LDA claimed Marsh Lane Fields was the only possible location, but organising the construction was chaotic and delayed. Waltham Forest Council then refused planning permission, leaving no time to revise the plans and reapply and if successful, construct the replacement allotments prior to the scheduled start of the Olympic construction work. They then sought to renege on their obligations and and evict the plot-holders with no guarantee of when or if the replacement site would be available. 

The Manor Garden Allotments had to apply to the High Court for Judicial Review with the help of the Environmental Law Foundation. Only in the face of this did the LDA agree to arrange for the remaining plot-holders  to continue to have access by special minibus to their allotments, now marooned within the secured Olympic construction site, until the Marsh Lane site was completed. 

Len & Mary Loft survey their allotment, destroyed for a footpath through the Olympic site

After having much of their equipment trashed by LDA contractors or stolen, the allotments were finally relocated here to Marsh Lane Fields, now renamed Leyton Jubilee Park, after an appeal against the original refusal of planning permission was successful.  The site was waterlogged and badly prepared.

Waterlogged new site at Marsh Lane Fields

The planning permission was granted by Waltham Forest Council on the strict condition that this was to be a temporary relocation and the allotments were to return to the Olympic Park. Not all the allotments mind you. The LDA refused to treat the allotments as a society, which it was, only agreeing to the return of those individual allotment holders who had moved from the original site.

Demonstration against the closure of Manor Garden Allotments

This first plan was then revised so that the allotments would be divided between two sites, one next to the Eton Manor Sports Complex, land also originally bought by Villiers and other philanthropists for the Eton Manor Sports Club, the other on the south of the Olympic Park at Pudding Mill, south of the mainline from Liverpool Street next to the City Mill River.

Pudding Mill Lane allotments

However, Waltham Forest and the Lea Valley Regional Park Authority (LVRPA) then objected to this plan to return the allotments to Eton Manor even though the London Legacy Development Corporation (LLDC) should have been bound by a planning decision to do this. Waltham Forest and the LVRPA concocted an agreement to overturn that decision with the connivance of the LLDC. Waltham Forest Council granted permission for a permanent site at Jubilee Park while the LLDC changed the use of the site at Eton Manor to make it into a general amenity and recreation space, which has remained unused ever since.

Closed forever: Manor Garden Allotments, gifted in perpetuity to people of the East End

The LVRPA had only received the allotments land as part of a gift from the Villiers Trust on condition they hosted the allotments. The allotments were effectively evicted twice and the LVRPA took control of land it had no right to without the presence of allotments.

LLDC document outlining the objections to the re-location of the allotments

The New Lammas Lands Defence Committee had campaigned fiercely to retain the open space at Marsh Lane and only accepted the allotments on the basis that they would be temporary but, as many predicted, once established the allotments were never removed after the Olympics. 

Marsh Lane Fields by kland

Not only was open space lost but promised environmental measures to screen the allotments have never been carried out. Jubilee Park will also now suffer far worse visual impacts from towers being built on the site of the former Gas Works and in the vicinity.

Lea Bridge Gas Works and other industry in the 1952

You can read more about the very sorry tale of the destruction of the Manor Garden Allotments on Games Monitor

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Virtual Beating of the Bounds: 🦉Stop 7

Posted on 24 May 2021 by Caroline Day

We’re continuing our virtual version of Beating the Bounds on Leyton Marshes, compiled for those that couldn’t take part in person on Rogation Sunday.

We’ve now reached 🦉Stop 7! Thank you for ‘travelling’ this far with us.

Map of Beating the Bounds route 2021

After following the path around the outskirts of the Waterworks, you find yourself at Stop 7, here is the clue:

“This was a place where wildlife lived in peace,
But now it features litter, noise and grime.
The birds and vegetation all decrease
When crowds arrive. This is a wildlife crime.“

🦉  The Old River Lea, by the Waterworks Meadow

The name of the River Lea was first recorded in the 9th century, although is believed to be much older. Spellings from the Anglo-Saxon period include Ligean in 880 and Lygan in 895, and in the early medieval period it is usually Luye or Leye. It seems to be derived from a Celtic root meaning ‘bright or light’ which is also the derivation of a name for a deity, so the meaning may be ‘bright river’ or ‘river dedicated to the god Lugus’. A simpler derivation may correlate with the modern Welsh “Li” pronounced “Lea” which means a flow or a current.

The Pagan God Lugus carved into oak

Before the 10th century, the estuary of the river came as far as Hackney Wick, crossed at Old Ford. Marsh Road, the continuation of Homerton High Street, led to the marshes, and thence to Temple Mills.

The Romans appear to have built a significant stone causeway across the marshes here; a periodical, the Ambulator of 1774, noted:

“there have been discovered within the last few years the remains of a great causeway of stone, which, by the Roman coins found there, would appear to have been one of the famous highways made by the Romans“

The river forms a natural boundary, so in AD 527 it formed the boundary between the Saxon kingdoms of Essex and Middlesex. In around AD 880 a treaty was drawn up dividing Anglo-Saxon Wessex from Danelaw (the part of Anglo-Saxon England colonized by invading Danish armies) along the same river boundary. On the Wessex side, people spoke a different language, obeyed different laws and worshipped different gods to those under Danelaw, on what is now Hackney Marshes!

River Lea imagined by Christine Engel

Around AD 894 the Danes tried to invade further into Anglo-Saxon territory, sailing Viking longships up the river Hertford, and in about 895 they built a fortified camp, in the higher reaches of the Lea, about 20 miles (32.2 km) north of London, at Ware, where the Lee Valley Regional Park now comes to an end. King Alfred the Great diverted the River Lea into a newly cut channel. This lowered the depth of the river, leaving the Vikings stranded. They were forced to abandon their ships and flee on horseback.

Painting of a Viking longship by Daniel R Blunt

In the Middle Ages attempts were also made to control the flow of water through the marshes.

Painting of a Medieval Watermill

Mills were established including the Knights Templar Mill at Temple Mills. Much of the marsh was owned by the Templars and used for pasture. The Domesday Book (1086) shows that during the Middle Ages there were at least eight water mills in the local area, producing flour for City bakers. A number of the mills were actually tidal as the tidal estuary stretched as far north as Hackney Wick.

A surviving watermill at Three Mills Island by Gordon Joly

Around 1770, the river was straightened by the construction of the Hackney Cut, now forming the western extent of the marsh. The natural watercourse passes to the east over the Middlesex Filter Beds Weir, just below Lea Bridge Road. The Waterworks Nature Reserve occupies the former Middlesex Filter Beds on the island between the two watercourses.

Magic Fish by Kate Malone at the Waterworks Nature Reserve (millfields blog)

In January 1809 the lower River Lea burst its banks in several places following a deluge that dumped two inches of rain in the space of 24 hours. The rain abruptly ended a snowy cold spell that had begun over a month before in the middle of December. “It is likely that up to half a metre of snow had fallen in the previous weeks in the upper parts of the surrounding countryside with only slight thawing. With the frozen ground unable to absorb any of the rapidly melting snow and rainfall the amount of water flowing downstream must have been immense.” Read more from an eye witness account from factory owner Luke Howard ‘When the River Lea was a mile wide‘ here.

At the end of the 19th century Hackney was beset by increased demand for building land, both for housing and to extend the factories in Homerton. The marshes continued to suffer periodic flooding from the Lea but with the introduction of mains sewerage, a flood relief sewer was constructed beneath the marshes. Most common and Lammas lands were then preserved by an Act of Parliament and passed to the control of the Metropolitan Board of Works, but the marsh remained excluded from the MBW scheme because many of the Lammas rights were still exercised, predominantly grazing. This was a period of increasing arguments between landowners eager to build, and groups seeking to preserve the open spaces for recreation.

In 1890, 337 acres of the marshes were preserved by the London County Council, by a purchase of the rights and landowners’ interests for £75,000. The marshes were opened to the public in 1893 and were formally dedicated in 1894. The LCC undertook further flood prevention, straightening some of the bends in the River by introducing four ‘cuts’, the old channels being retained to form islands.

The Old River Lea through Hackney Marshes by plentyofants

The river now forms the border between the boroughs of Hackney and Waltham Forest. Although the threat of flooding remains, the main threat to the river now comes from pollution, with raw sewage frequently discharged into the river as well as less common events causing major damage, such as an oil leak in 2018 and the toxic runoff from a warehouse fire in 2019. Water extraction, for drinking water, farming and industry has led to a reduction in river flow impacting wildlife and concentrating the pollutants present in the remaining river water. The water quality is designated as ‘Bad’ along its length.

Fish dead on the River Lea by Loving Dalston

Despite this, encouraged by the fashion for open water swimming, glamourised national media coverage and lack of information about the scale of the pollution, hundreds of people frequented the river banks in 2020.

Female Kingfisher on the River Lea by Alan Revel

The impact from vastly increased human disturbance led to kingfishers deserting their nest and a pair of little owls tragically abandoning their babies. As a result of local intervention, action by Hackney Council and improved education, we hope for a more positive outcome in 2021.

Little Owl on the Waterworks Meadow

Main source: Wikipedia. All other sources linked for reference and further exploration.

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Virtual Beating the Bounds: 🏊‍♀️Stop 6

Posted on 23 May 2021 by Caroline Day

We’re continuing our virtual version of Beating the Bounds on Leyton Marshes, compiled for those that couldn’t take part in person on Rogation Sunday.

After completing the last stop on Leyton Marsh we’ve crossed the Lea Bridge Road, have re-joined the Aqueduct Path and are now at 🏊‍♀️Stop 6. Here’s the clue:

“There’s little to be seen beyond the fence.
A flat expanse of concrete’s all you see.
We have a plan – the prospects are immense –
To make a park beside the River Lea.“

Bucolic image of Lea Bridge by Thomas Hosmer Shepherd 1834

Until the early 19th century, this area on the south side of the Lea Bridge Road and east of the River Lea was part of rural Leyton Marshes. Significant changes befell the Lea Bridge area in the 19th century with the advent of industrialisation and the construction of railways and waterworks to serve the growing population.

🏊‍♀️The East London Waterworks

From 1829 onwards the area situated between Leyton Marsh and Hackney Marshes homed the East London Waterworks, a complex of 25 filter beds served by an aqueduct bringing water from the Walthamstow reservoirs further north. This water filtration plant provided a water supply to Londoners for nearly 150 years.

Historic Layout of the East London Waterworks

The East London Water Works Co. was established in 1806 to supply water to the East London areas of Shoreditch, Dalston and West Ham. In 1829 the source of water was moved further up the River Lea, to Lea Bridge, as a result of the pollution caused by population growth further south.

East London Waterworks Company Stamps

1 Share worth £100 purchased in the East London Waterworks Company, London, 01.04.1831

In 1866 during a cholera pandemic outbreak, where almost 6,000 Londoners perished, the East London Water works Co. was found guilty of supplying contaminated water from the River Lea and stored in open reservoirs.  Initially the company denied involvement in the outbreak and the East London Water Company’s company engineer, Charles Greaves, stated in The Medical Times and Gazette that the water pumped and distributed from Lea was perfectly safe to drink and use. It was not until the company’s admission to violations of the Metropolitan Water Act several months later, including the pumping of polluted water when demand for supply was high, that stricter public control of water companies was demanded.

Painting depicting the cholera outbreak in East London in 1866

Following the Metropolis Water Act in 1902, nine private water companies including the East London Water Works Co. came into public ownership when the Metropolitan Water Board was established. Until the 1970s the East London Waterworks at Lea Bridge continued to provide clean water to the people of London.

In 1973 the Metropolitan Water Board and the Thames Conservancy were taken over by the Thames Water Authority, under the terms of the Water Act 1973.

Mann, Cyril; Metropolitan Water Board Works, Lea Bridge Road, Walthamstow, 1967; William Morris Gallery

In the 1980s, the Waterworks was split up and the ‘Essex Number One Beds’ were retained by Thames Water for an operational site. Originally, Thames Water obtained planning permission to fill in the beds to create a temporary pipe store. From that starting point, Thames Water went on to occupy the site for a succession of uses including the project with Clancy Docwra to replace the East London water mains. 

The historic filter beds were divided into three sections

Sadly, Thames Water demolished the old engine houses although there are some wonderful old buildings surviving adjacent to the Lea Bridge Weir, including the Octagonal Turbine House, also known as the Sluice House.

Octagonal Turbine House, built 1895 (c) Heather Gardiner

The Lee Valley Regional Park Authority took control of the sites known as the Middlesex Filter Beds and the Waterworks Nature Reserve (also known as Essex 2 Filter Beds), now important sites for wildlife.

Waterworks Nature Reserve
Blue tit at the Waterworks Nature Reserve by Susan Huckle, available as a greeting card on our Shop page

The Thames Water Authority was privatised by Thatcher’s government and became Thames Water Utilities Limited. This privatised company was listed on the London Stock Exchange in 1989.

In 2012 an impressive application was made to create a Lea Bridge Conservation Area. Despite the rich history and the presence of one listed building within the area, English Heritage mysteriously rejected a listing for the East London Waterworks as an area of national and architectural significance. The refusal of an appeal of this decision leaves the area with no existing heritage protection.

Inside the Engineer’s House by Millfields Blog

In 2013, the late Katy Andrews (New Lammas Lands Defence Committee), organised a visit to the former East London Waterworks, at that time still managed by Thames Water as a depot. Despite being MOL, the site has been completely fenced off from public access for decades, so photographs from this visit by millfieldsblog provide a rare insight into what lies within the site and the Victorian buildings that remain.

In 2016, the land was sold by Thames Water to the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, to build two free schools. Planning permission was refused in 2019, mainly as the development was considered inappropriate on Metropolitan Open Land (the legal equivalent of Green Belt).

Image of proposed free schools on site of former Thames Water Depot

Save Lea Marshes, supported by Council for the Protection of Rural England (London), felt that this was a good opportunity to re-join the marshes and following local consultations founded a new organisation – the East London Waterworks Park with the idea of restoring the land and historic buildings on site with a focus on wild swimming, community, scientific and arts workshops – we envision a truly ecological project run for and by local people. 

Should this plan come to fruition, the site would be fully restored to public access after nearly two hundred years!

Masterplan of the proposed East London Waterworks Park (c) PiM.studio Architects

The project has just successfully crowdfunded for its first phase of preparation for further research to prepare for its ownership bid.  It will be a new park for London, a new place for wildlife and offer new opportunities for local people.  You can sign the petition to support the project here.

Looking across to Lea Bridge Weir, the Sluice House (right) and the Engineer’s House (left) on the East London Waterworks Park site https://www.instagram.com/waterloversoflondon/

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Virtual Beating of the Bounds: Stop 5

Posted on 21 May 2021 by Caroline Day

We’re continuing our virtual version of Beating the Bounds on Leyton Marshes, compiled for those that couldn’t take part in person on Rogation Sunday and we’re now at 🦔 Stop 5:

Here’s the clue:

“This open space – it’s all protected land

And yet a huge new ice rink’s coming here.

This home of reptiles, birds and hedgehogs and

Much other wildlife will just disappear.“

We think everyone who took part on the day cracked the clue and found this stop!

🦔Stop 5, next to the Lee Valley Ice Centre

The path that leads beneath Lea Bridge Road and along the top of Leyton Marshes follows the course of the aqueduct that once linked the filter beds to the reservoirs at Coppermill Lane. We would normally take this route to the Waterworks but ironically it is cut off by accidental water works, with the underpass flooded for the last six months so instead we are making a detour and continuing on Leyton Marsh.

Flooded Lea Bridge underpass, posted by photoben on Reddit

Leyton Marsh fairs have taken place for centuries at this location. After the new build of the ice centre is complete, there will be no space for the fairs on Leyton Marsh, which will move to Eton Manor.

Leyton Marsh Fair, 1950s, image from Vestry House Museum

A new double-pad ice centre was approved at this location in October 2020 despite it being protected Metropolitan Open Land. The new building will be a ‘twin pad’ and be 95% bigger than the current ice centre. Save Lea Marshes argued that either a replacement community ice rink should be built at this location (on the footprint of the old building) or, preferably, that a new ice centre should be built at Eton Manor, next to the Tennis & Hockey Centre on the Olympic Park.

New ice centre (blue) overlaid on current ice centre (red)

Siting a larger ice centre and car park at the current location involves the destruction of a known hedgehog habitat. Hedgehogs are an endangered species and are close to local extinction in East London.

Postcard of a hedgehog by Alison Stirling in response to works on Leyton Marsh

Save Lea Marshes staged a ‘Halloween Ghost Wildlife’ protest to highlight the home that would be lost for this and other rare wildlife in the area. You can watch a video of the event by Ian Phillips on his YouTube channel. It was a very wet and blustery day!

Placard at the Halloween demo for wildlife

In December, the local community bore witness to the ‘clearance works’ at this site. Scrub, hedgerow and trees were removed, mostly placed straight into wood chippers. One valiant protester held a one-man tree occupation at this spot. However clearance and ground investigation works have continued.

Ian Phillips explores the implications for wildlife and biodiversity here

Protester occupying a tree in an attempt to save it
Response to the works on Leyton Marsh: Sessile Oak by Alison Stirling

The good news is that the construction of a temporary ice rink on Leyton Marsh has been ruled out. This must, at least in part, be attributable to the dedication of the community over the last 9 years, opposing inappropriate development on MOL at Leyton Marsh. The new facility will cost in the region of £30m-£40m and Waltham Forest Council have committed £1m to the project, although the rest of the funding is not assured.

Save Lea Marshes are working with local wildlife experts, lobbying hard for the replacement of scrub habitat and meeting the LVRPA regularly to make sure any ecological ‘enhancements’ take place on site as promised.

Scrub being cleared on Leyton Marsh

Well done to everyone who played their part in the campaigns for saving Leyton Marsh over the years – it has made a difference in preventing even more intrusive and damaging works, even if we weren’t able to prevent a much larger building being built here.

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Virtual Beating of the Bounds: Stop no.4

Posted on 19 May 2021 by SLMAdmin

We’re continuing our virtual version of Beating the Bounds on Leyton Marshes, compiled for those that couldn’t take part in person on Rogation Sunday.

We will now follow the map, from 🛩️ Stop no.3 along the boundary between Leyton Marsh and Walthamstow Marshes to reach 🐴 Stop no.4.

“The lands of Walthamstow and Leyton here
Are demarcated by a line of trees.
It’s interrupted by a fence. Keep clear!
A horse hotel! So go no further please!“

This point on the map, at the corner of Leyton Marsh, is close to the ancient Black Path.

🐴 The Black Path

The Black Path, which cuts across Leyton Marsh diagonally, was historically a porter’s way, leading from the fields to the great market of London (Lundenburh, as it was in the late Anglo-Saxon period). It was also a route of pilgrimage.

Sometimes called the Porter’s Way, this was the route cattle were driven along to Smithfield and the path used by smallholders taking produce to Spitalfields Market. In the past, it was also called the Templars’ Way, because further south it linked the thirteenth-century St Augustine’s Church on land once owned by Knights Templar in Hackney with the Priory of St John in Clerkenwell where they had their headquarters.

St Augustine’s Tower, image by Spitalfields Life

No-one knows how old the Black Path is or why it has this name, but it once traversed open country before the roads existed. These days the path is black because it has a covering of asphalt, except of course, across the marshes where once ‘the very dark grey sandy clay’ must have made the route difficult to traverse; less so along this ancient well-trodden path.

A map showing the location of Lea Bridge Farm

The Lea floodplain was once known as ‘Black Marsh’ and was home to a farm, stream and meadows yet the Black Path was an important trading route until the advent of railways, waterworks and gas works on Leyton Marshes in the 19th century.

Beating the Bounds across the Black Path

Whilst previous Beating of the Bounds excursions have valiantly kept open the Black Path route running through the horse paddock, recently the path has become inaccessible due to the imposition of fencing and the expansion of the Riding Centre facilities, now including a large private livery by the Lee Valley Regional Park Authority on former Lammas Lands.

Scrambling through the fencing to mark the boundary, on the ancient Black Path

The Black Path joins the end point of the Beating the Bounds route, where it crosses the railway, but this way is no longer passable because of the paddock fencing interrupting our traditional Borough boundary route. However, the Black Path also passes by the next waypoint, no.5.

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A Virtual Beating of the Bounds: Stop 3

Posted on 17 May 2021 by Caroline Day

We’re continuing our virtual version of Beating the Bounds on Leyton Marshes, compiled for those that couldn’t take part in person on Rogation Sunday.

We will now follow the map, from 🏀 Stop no.2 , along Sandy Lane, to the boundary between Leyton and Walthamstow Marshes, which also marks the boundary of the Parish of Walthamstow, to reach 🛩️Stop no.3.

Beating the Bounds Procession on Sandy Lane, Leyton Marsh

Here’s the clue:

“Near here an early tri-plane flew –

The pilot’s name was fishy too.

And also here: SSSI

Rare Fern of Adder’s Tongue nearby.“

Tree hugging the black poplar on the boundary between Leyton & Walthamstow Marshes

The first part of the clue relates a famous event on Walthamstow Marshes:

🛩️ A V Roe Flight

The first ever full powered flight in the UK took place on Walthamstow Marshes at the railway arches over Sandy Lane (Clapton Junction).

This area was at that time in Essex but is now within the London Borough of Waltham Forest.  The creator of the plane was Alliot Verdon Roe (the ‘fishy’ name) who called his triplane ‘Bullseye’ after the braces manufactured by his brother’s firm, which had helped pay for it.

On 13 July 1909, he achieved a flight of 100 ft (30 m), and ten days later one of 900 ft (280 m). Over the next two months further successful flights were made and the aircraft was modified slightly: the drive belt was replaced by a chain, the vertical tail surfaces were removed and both the engine and pilot’s seat were moved forwards.  Roe was then evicted from the two railway arches he had rented on Walthamstow Marshes.

A full scale replica of the Roe triplane, 2009

On 12 July 2009, an event was held on Walthamstow Marshes to commemorate the first all-British flight under the auspices of the Royal Aeronautical Society, with several generations of Roe’s family in attendance. A new historic marker was unveiled on the northern entrance to Roe’s former workshops:

The second part of the clue also relates to Walthamstow Marshes:

“And also here: SSSI

Rare Fern of Adder’s Tongue nearby.“

The Walthamstow Marshes consists of 88 acres of ancient marsh and wetland. This area was threatened with obliteration when the Lea Valley Park Authority applied to the Greater London Council to dig them up for gravel extraction and replace them with a marina in 1979. The local community mounted a fantastic campaign to prevent the flora and fauna being dug up and the ancient accumulation of gravel beneath, laid down over thousands of years by ice sheets, being excavated to the depth of 36 feet.

Save The Marshes campaign assembling (still from BBC film)

In 1979, the front page of the Hackney Gazette ran with the headline ‘Fight is on to save wildlife marshes’ and BBC Nationwide made a film about the campaign; this is still available to view on YouTube!

One member of the Save The Marshes campaign, Brian Wurzel, had spent years botanising every square inch of the marshes and had complied a complete list of every plant there was on it, hundreds of plants from the rare to the common. Without this wealth of information, Walthamstow Marshes may have been lost forever.

Campaigners demonstrating the botanical diversity of Walthamstow Marshes

The campaign convinced both Hackney and Waltham Forest Councils to object to the plan but the decision came down to the Greater London Council. A marshes exhibition of all the glorious plant diversity on the marshes was put up in the GLC headquarters at County Hall. Ken Livingstone, at that time GLC councillor for Hackney North and Stoke Newington, fully supported the campaign.

On 4th February 1980, the GLC Minerals Committee met to decide the application for gravel extraction. Literally just seconds before the vote was taken, the doors burst open and in came some thirty or more primary school children from Harrington Hill Primary School, Hackney. They all piled into the room and onto the platform behind the councillors, within a couple of feet of them, on top of them almost, the very moment the vote on the future of the marshes was about to be taken.

The vote was called. It was unanimous. The application to dig up the Walthamstow Marshes for gravel extraction and replacement by a marina was rejected. The campaign had been won. That didn’t of course put an end to the campaigning!

Adder Tongue Fern

Five years later members of the campaign won for the marshes the designation of a Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) from the Nature Conservancy Council, now called Natural England. Two hundred different types of flora were identified, alongside the rare Adder Tongue Fern. The SSSI designation, based on this evidence of both fauna and flora which campaign members had collected, was official acknowledgment of their great natural value and made their care and preservation secure until the present day.

You can read more about this incredible campaign here.

Belted Galloways on Walthamstow Marshes

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A Virtual Beating of the Bounds: Stop no.2

Posted on 15 May 2021 by Caroline Day

Here is the clue for stop no.2:

🏀 I am bridge, a royal part, whose name
Is from a former pub. And just beside
In twenty-twelve Olympic mayhem came.
Alas, we failed to stop it – but we tried!

If you follow the map from Stop no.1 (Princess of Wales), you will find yourself travelling upstream of the River Lea, along the towpath adjacent to North Millfields Park. From there you will cross the river over the Kings Head Bridge.

A Beating the Bounds procession crossing the Kings Head Bridge, 2017

In the 19th century, the Kings Head Pub occupied the spot which is now home to flats named ‘Dockside Court’, at what was then Middlesex Wharf, and Lea Dock, an inlet from the River Lea, ran behind the pub. The building had a sign on the roof which was visible from the river so that bargemen could spot the pub from a distance as they were passing. This pub was rebuilt in the 1920s at a time when all the older buildings in the area were removed on health grounds because of frequent flooding. The dock was filled in at the same that the pub was rebuilt.

Kings Head, 44 Middlesex Wharf, Clapton – circa 1886, image from Vincent O’Loughlin

The Kings Head pub closed and was demolished in around 2000 but it still gives its name to the bridge that crosses to Leyton Marsh.

🏀 Leyton Marsh, east end of Kings Head Bridge

Save Leyton Marsh (SLM) was a campaign group established by the local community to oppose the construction of a temporary basketball venue for the London 2012 Olympic Games.

Local people took direct action against the destruction of Leyton Marsh at this spot. We organised early morning games of boules on Sandy Lane, preventing lorries from accessing the site.

In March 2012, we were joined by a group from Occupy London who established a Community Protection Camp next to the construction site.

Community Protection Camp on Leyton Marsh 2012

Like Hackney Marshes, Leyton Marsh had been used as a landfill site for WW2 rubble, which is why the ground lies considerably higher than Walthamstow Marshes. Excavation for the 11m high basketball training facility resulted in tonnes of contaminated rubble being uncovered, which was left exposed on site for weeks.

Uncovered toxic rubble, Leyton Marsh

Injunctions against the occupation and the protest were heard at High Court of Justice. Ironically the court order was made by one ‘Master M. Marsh’!

A civil injunction was lodged by the Olympic Delivery Authority against various protesters who blocked construction vehicles at Leyton Marsh.

Protesters under a lorry on Leyton Marsh

Three protesters were jailed and a local resident was heavily fined after breaking the injunction.

Eviction of the camp, April 2012

After the eviction, the Community Protection Camp moved to the Lea Bridge Road, in front of the current Lee Valley Ice Centre. However the temporary basketball facility was erected, taking up most of Leyton Marsh. During the Games, it was hardly used.

Temporary Basketball Court, viewed from Riverside Close
The late Jane Bednall with the banner she created for the campaign, now at the Museum of London, and Baroness Jenny Jones

The site was finally restored to public use, well after the promised date, and the land still bears the scars of misuse.

Leyton Marsh from above, the footprint of the temporary facility can still be seen,a plastic membrane having been placed in the ground during ‘restoration’ works

Save Leyton Marsh changed its name to Save Lea Marshes and continues to campaign against inappropriate use and development of the marshes to this day, most recently the construction of a new double-size ice centre complex on Leyton Marsh.

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A Virtual Beating the Bounds on Leyton Marshes!

Posted on 14 May 2021 by Caroline Day

We are going to share a series historical insights into the former Lammas Lands of Leyton Marshes for those who were unable to take part in the geocaching version of Beating the Bounds that took place on Sunday 9th May 2021.

A huge thanks to everyone whose input or inspiration made this event a success, particularly Alan Russell for his knowledge and inspiration.

We are going to start at the beginning of the route, marked 👑 on the map.

Beating the Bounds map

Here was the clue:

I have a name which sounds like whales.
I’m better-known for wines and ales.
My name is not on old maps, since
In former times I was a prince

This is, of course…

👑 The Princess of Wales

Beating the Bounds being opened by the Belles of London City, here in 2017

Lea Bridge takes its name from a bridge built over the River Lea in 1745, and the Lea Bridge Road which leads through the area and across the bridge. The bridge also gives its name to a ward in Waltham Forest (Lea Bridge) on the eastern, Leyton, bank of the river, and to a ward in Hackney on the Western side of the river, also called Lea Bridge ward.

Lea Bridge looking north to the current Princess of Wales pub, 1821

The boundary between the two boroughs runs down the middle of what is now the Lee Navigation – we wouldn’t suggest swimming to mark this particular boundary – this is now one of the most polluted rivers in the country!

Oil spill on the Lee Navigation 2018

In 1861 the Princess of Wales in Lea Bridge was listed as The Prince of Wales and it wasn’t renamed until 1995.

Gathering at the Princess of Wales with Katie Andrews for Beating the Bounds

The first recorded occupants of the pub were from 1843, a William Window, upholsterer, of Church Street, Hackney; who married Anne Barton Southam, of Lea Bridge, Hackney. Her father was John Southam, a ‘Licensed Victualler’. Caleb Day and his family were the inhabitants until 1901, when the last ‘Licensed Victualler’ from the family was Amelia C Day.

The Old School House

Behind this building on Lea Bridge Road is a Grade II listed Victorian Old School Room or the ‘Old School Nook’, built in 1862, for the education of the children of those who lived by a now built over dock – the former schoolhouse was saved from demolition and is now restored and occupied by a Buddhist Order. In the map below, it is labelled ‘Mission Room’.

This formerly industrial area, home to a Glass Bottle Works and a Carbonic Acid Works, was historically affected by serious flooding events, which is accounted in detail by Stephen Ayers, here.

Flooding as viewed from site of Princess of Wales, 1947

“The Lee Valley flood relief channel was constructed between 1950 and 1976, using innovative construction techniques to cope with the level of flooding that occurred in 1947, which was calculated to probably occur once every 70 years.” However, in the era of climate change, it may be called upon more in the future than it has been in the past.

Engineers House (c) Heather Gardiner

From the pub, you can look across to the Engineers House, built in 1892, once part of the East London Waterworks and intended to be the feature building of the future East London Waterworks Park.

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What is the Future for the New Lee Valley Ice Centre Complex?

Posted on 11 May 2021 by Caroline Day

It has recently been revealed that Waltham Forest Council has made the decision to give £1m towards the new Lee Valley Ice Centre.

Blue line shows footprint of new building on Leyton Marsh

The New Lee Valley Ice Centre: Financial Support agreement (published by Waltham Forest Council Cabinet on 4th May) is as follows::

“The Council to provide a cumulative total of £1m grant over 5 phased payments to Lee Valley Regional Park Authority (LVRPA) to assist with the overall LVRPA investment of up to £40m for the new ice rink in return for the LVRPA to provide additional benefits to Waltham Forest Residents.” (4.1)

The estimated cost of the new ice centre complex, which includes an 800 spectator venue, a cafe, gym and large car park was previously quoted as £30m and it has now risen to a possible £40m.

The Authority intend to borrow this £30-40m to build this very large facility (95% bigger than the current one), subject to approval by the Secretary of State.

An artist’s impression of the new LVIC – with mature trees that do not yet exist!

The justification for using money from Waltham Forest taxpayers to finance the ice centre complex was the funding difficulty the LVRPA are facing, especially during construction:

 ” The LVRPA are struggling to cover the peak debt during the construction phase, meaning the project may not go ahead.” (5.1)

For this money, which will be on top of the precept that the London boroughs, including Waltham Forest Council, pay towards the Lee Valley Regional Park, the LBWF have been promised:

  • Targeted ice centre sessions for ‘under represented groups’
  • Targeted crime prevention and well-being programmes
  • Community tickets for events
  • Biodiversity education programme (4.1)

The commitment to a biodiversity education programme may raise many an eyebrow! The chair of the Waltham Forest Planning Committee who gave permission for the application described the Leyton Marsh site as a ‘desperately scrubby bit of Metropolitan Open Land’ seemingly unaware that this scrub was an important habitat. Any neglect of the area around the ice centre was due to the applicant, the LVRPA, failing to properly care for the land in the first place.

The hedgehog and bird habitat before clearance works

Preparation works began last year, just days after planning permission was obtained, and the local community witnessed, with dismay, as  known hedgehog habitat was cleared with strimmers and many trees were felled on the development site. Many of the workers had come straight from felling trees on the HS2 route and, just as happened there, trees were placed straight into wood-chipping machines.

Oak being felled behind the current ice centre for the larger new ice centre

As a local resident recently suggested, maybe the Waltham Forest Planning Committee should themselves receive biodiversity training as in approving the application, they deliberately ignored the plight of hedgehogs, a Red List species, very close to extinction in East London.

Clearance works on Leyton Marsh, December 2020

Despite all these habitat clearance works hastily taking place, the estimated £30m -£40m required funding for the double-size facility has not been secured.

Sports England and the London Marathon Trust, who were approached for funding, will not be investing in the new facility.

Another issue is the provision of ice skating during construction. The LVRPA completed a feasibility study into building a temporary ice rink whilst the new building is constructed. On page 32 of their most recent Authority report they state: ’The only adjoining site is Leyton Marsh and Authority officers immediately ruled this out as it is not believed to be a viable or appropriate option to consider.’

The construction of a temporary ice centre adjacent to the new one was ruled out due to ‘costs, time and uncertainty’ since the site is Metropolitan Open Land and ‘it is very likely the decision would be called in and challenged’.

With their consistent and determined opposition, the community have played their part in preventing a repeat of the Olympics fiasco; a disastrous construction of a temporary facility on Leyton Marsh. We are obviously very relieved a large temporary ice centre will not be built on the footprint of the temporary basketball training facility!

Temporary basketball facility, 2012 viewed from Riverside Close

The LVRPA also considered the current ice centre car park for a temporary facility but mention the impact on the Oxbow Island and the residents of Essex Wharf and say ‘any application would probably lead to objections and potential challenge from local residents and interested groups’. Quite right.

So the ice centre will be now built in one go rather than in stages. It was clear at the Authority meeting we attended that this was a very unwelcome and unexpected development for the local ice skating coaches who have been unable to train for a long period already.

We warned about the problem of providing continuity of ice skating at the current site, advising that the new facility should instead be sited at Eton Manor, adjacent to the Hockey and Tennis Centre, on the Olympic Park. If the new ice centre had been built there, the current ice centre could have kept running whilst the new one was under construction. As they chose instead to site the new ice centre complex on Leyton Marsh, this cannot be done, and further revenue will be lost during this period unnecessarily. Better public transport connections at Eton Manor, via Stratford, would have meant a much better chance of achieving the ambition to create a national ice skating centre there.

It has now been confirmed, as we suspected, that the Eton Manor site was rejected for the ice centre, not because it was unsuitable, but because plans were already advanced for a hotel on the site:

(Screenshot from the Authority Agenda p.4)

We remain concerned that the venue, in the current climate, is too ambitious and costly, and could easily become a white elephant. Green space in the park could be ‘disposed of’ to fund repayment of large loans taken out to fund the venue.

This is what the LVRPA originally intended to do, when it was planning to sell off part of the Waterworks site, for housing. It was only through determined campaigning and the threat of legal action that we were able to prevent this. Further development is now planned for the Waterworks Centre and car park; we wonder how the Authority will fund such development, in light of the huge cost of the ice centre project.

After a sustained period unsuccessfully opposing a new double-pad ice centre complex on Leyton Marsh, we believe our role is now to scrutinise the plans as best we can. We appreciate that the LVRPA have been meeting with us on a regular basis to update us on the works, and listening to the input of local wildlife experts on the issues of environmental mitigation. We will be exploring the issue of on-site Biodiversity Offsetting and proposed new habitat creation in a future post.

You can read all the LVRPA documentation relating to the latest ice centre developments here (scroll to p.9) and here (scroll to p.23)

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