Beating the Bounds has now started. To take part, download the Clue Sheet from here and print it out. You have until 6 o’clock this evening (9th May) to find all the boxes. Good luck!
For more information about Beating the Bounds, please read the blog below.
Beating the bounds is a centuries-old tradition, aimed at reminding everyone of boundaries that were important in their lives. During Rogationtide—the fifth week after Easter—villagers, with the rector and other local dignitaries, would walk the parish bounds. The children would carry willow wands to beat the boundary markers with, and in some ceremonies children had their heads bumped on boundary stones to imprint them firmly in the memory.
Today the parish boundary is not so important, and modern maps show them clearly enough. But other boundaries still are important and the map usually fails to show them—the boundaries of our commons and village greens.
There are all too many interests keen to encroach on the margins of our commons and greens. If no one objects in time, it can mean common land is permanently lost. So beating the bounds is just as important today. It reminds your local community that they have a common or green with a boundary to be guarded, and in the process also shows them how much enjoyment and interest the area has to offer. It’s a practical and enjoyable way to protect a valuable part of our heritage.
Information from The Open Spaces Society, read more here: https://www.oss.org.uk/need-to-know-more/information-hub/beating-the-bounds-of-your-local-common-or-green/
This year, we are unable to carry out the Beating of the Bounds in the normal way, because of Covid restrictions. So instead we are providing a method for people to carry it out on their own or in small groups. We have created a “geocaching” activity, which follows the course of the Beating the Bounds procession.
To take part, you will need a mobile device that understands location information. There will be a number of “geocaches” at predetermined locations. On this website there will be a Clue List for you to download and print out. On the Clue List, for each geocache there will be a clue and its coordinates (a pair of numbers). Input the coordinates into your mobile device, and that should guide you to the vicinity of the geocache.
Each geocache consists of a small box. Although a little camouflaged, they should all be visible. Some you may need to poke around in the vegetation a little to find, but no digging will be required! Inside you will find a rubber stamp, which you should use to stamp your Clue List. Please put everything back in the box afterwards, and put the box back where you found it!
The Clue List will be posted on this website on the morning of Sunday 9th of May, once all the geocaches have been placed in position. So keep an eye on this website! The actvity will finish at 6pm. After that time, the geocaches will be removed.
We have chosen to create a brand new geocaching event this year that is family friendly and suitable for all ages!
This is because our number one priority is keeping people safe.
Our previous Beating the Bounds events have been extremely popular, drawing large crowds. Such crowds occurring altogether at once could create a problem for attendees where there are narrow paths, such as towpaths or on bridges, which are pinch points on the route and where it would be very difficult to enforce social distancing. This would also create potential unsafe obstruction for local residents.
However, geocaching is a perfect way for everyone to celebrate the tradition on site, in their own time, with whomever they like!
There will be a celebration of the distant and recent past, with the radical flavour that we hope the New Lammas Lands Defence Committee who re-established the tradition on the marshes, and the late and dearly missed Katy Andrews would be proud of.
We will be providing two ways of taking part in the event to make sure it is friendly both to those fully immersed in the digital age, as well as to those who have knowledge of the local area and prefer following more traditional clues!
All the resources you need to take part will be available to download on this homepage on 9th May, so keep posted here!
Dear SLM,
Katharine Viner has forwarded your letter on behalf of Save Lea Marshes in response to the photo essay published on 7 April 2021.
https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/gallery/2021/apr/07/escaping-the-pandemic-east-london-secret-paradise-sophia-evans-in-pictures
The photographer, Sophia Evans, is local to the area and is aware of the pollution issues in the river.
In order to acknowledge those issues we took the following steps:
1. We added the following words from her to the first caption.
“As a local to this area I was aware of levels of city pollution in the River Lea, like many other city waterways, & the Latin-American community I encountered were also wise to it. But, with the horror of the Covid Pandemic all around, people needed an escape from confined flats & housing, and their attitude was that the virus to them was a much bigger threat. The river to this community is a childhood memory, a place of social and emotional comfort, and an escape.”
2. We noted at the end of the gallery that environmental authorities advise against swimming in the River Lea.
3. We published a group of letters in response – from those who were highlighting concerns:https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2021/apr/08/the-river-lea-is-plagued-by-pollution-it-is-no-place-for-a-swim
We included a link to those letters beneath the subheading of the photo gallery.
4. We amended the headline and subheading to better reflect what was being depicted in the images and to note the concerns about pollution.
We appreciate you and others drawing these issues to our attention in connection with the piece and trust that the steps we have taken address your concerns.
We believe that the piece now is a fuller portrayal of the place and events.
Yours sincerely,
June Sheehan.
________________________________________________________________
Dear June Sheehan,
Thank you for your reply. We would like to point out that the amendments to your photo essay fail to deal with some critical issues which we covered in our letter to the Guardian. Pollution is a threat to the health of swimmers. However, the swimmers and others drawn to this site by articles like the one you published pose a threat to the environment and wildlife at the River Lea, causing extensive damage and leaving behind mountains of litter. We highlighted these issues in our letter when we wrote:
As a result of hundreds of people travelling here and assembling daily on the banks of the river throughout the spring and summer of 2020, drawn by media content such as this, many wildlife species were disturbed and failed to breed successfully. This includes Red List kingfishers, who abandoned their nest, and little owls who abandoned their young because of the volume of people and the noise of the huge crowds. One of the photos in the piece sympathetically recounts someone turning on a large amplified sound system at this important site for nature conservation without thought for the consequences.
This is a fragile river habitat and not a beach. Photographs of people with inflatable beach gear and posing in bikinis gives the impression that this is an alternative beach destination. In fact, using this area as a ‘beach’ has led to serious compaction of the river banks; they should be covered in vegetation and are now bare and lifeless. A beautiful mature tree was cut down by the Lee Valley Regional Park Authority because a man broke his hip while using it as a swing and had to be taken to hospital. Fire engines were called out when people’s barbecues got out of control and set fire to the woodland – had this happened on the meadow on the opposite bank, the whole area could have been destroyed, with long term and devastating consequences for wildlife.
Further to this we would also point out Hackney Marsh by the Old Lea is designated a Site of Importance for Nature Conservation (SINC) of London-wide importance. Promoting this area as a party destination obscures the real and serious damage to the environment and wildlife caused by large crowds assembling here.
We still believe this article should be removed. Your new superior headline ‘How Londoners were Drawn to a River’ reflects the ongoing issue with the piece; will your audience look at the beautiful photographs and still consider this location worth visiting, particularly on a hot and sunny day? We think they will, and if they do, this feature will have worsened the impact upon the environment as well as the risk to human health from such tourism.
Save Lea Marshes
Save Lea Marshes is a campaign group dedicated to preserving the marshes in the Lower Lee Valley for wildlife and future generations. We were pleased to see the extensive and important coverage given to the issue of sewage pollution by The Guardian last week: ‘Water firms discharged raw sewage into English waters 400,000 times last year’.
The article revealed local water company Thames Water spent 215,886 hours discharging untreated sewage into rivers. Many of these spills were into the River Lea, one of the most polluted rivers in the UK, and its tributaries, via Combined Sewage Overflows.
The River Lea runs through the heart of the Lee Valley marshes and it is here we have witnessed the devastating impact of untreated sewage spills and extensive plastic pollution, as well as frequent industrial pollution incidents. Most summers, huge stretches of the river, from Tottenham to Hackney, have been strewn with dead fish, choked by oil or suffocated due to lack of oxygen. Recently, local people have photographed plastic and sewage debris hanging from trees and bushes all along the river. Many have taken it upon themselves to haul out fly-tipped waste, plastic and sanitary products, as the water company and river authorities have stood by, deaf to our appeals to take action. It has been both disgusting and heart breaking to witness.
We were, therefore, dumbfounded to see ‘Escaping the pandemic: East London’s secret paradise – in pictures’ appear in The Guardian today (07/04/21). The photos depict people happily assembling on the banks of the River Lea, swimming and splashing about in the river; there is even a photo of a baby floating on the heavily polluted waters.
The tone is light and the portrayal is misleading. Firstly, this location is not ‘secret’. As a result of hundreds of people travelling here and assembling daily on the banks of the river throughout the spring and summer of 2020, drawn by media content such as this, many wildlife species were disturbed and failed to breed successfully. This includes Red List kingfishers, who abandoned their nest, and little owls who abandoned their young because of the volume of people and the noise of the huge crowds. One of the photos in the piece sympathetically recounts someone turning on a large amplified sound system at this important site for nature conservation without thought for the consequences.
This is a fragile river habitat and not a beach. Photographs of people with inflatable beach gear and posing in bikinis gives the impression that this is an alternative beach destination. In fact, using this area as a ‘beach’ has led to serious compaction of the river banks; they should be covered in vegetation and are now bare and lifeless. A beautiful mature tree was cut down by the Lee Valley Regional Park Authority because a man broke his hip while using it as a swing and had to be taken to hospital. Fire engines were called out when people’s barbeques got out of control and set fire to the woodland – had this happened on the meadow on the opposite bank, the whole area could have been destroyed, with long term and devastating consequences for wildlife.
Promoting this area as a party destination obscures the real and serious damage to the environment and wildlife caused by large crowds assembling here.
Depicting people swimming and splashing in the river makes people think the water is safe enough to swim in, especially if young children or babies are shown in the water. In fact, water with a high concentration of faecal bacteria poses a serious risk to human health from shigella, salmonella, E-coli and norovirus. This year has shown us that we all need to look after our health – not just for our own sake but for the sake of our communities, as well as protect the places that sustain us.
We ask that you retract this piece or publish letters from the local community alongside it, so your readers have a true awareness of the whole picture, including all the ugly facts that your latest piece fails to mention.
Save Lea Marshes
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.
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!
January: A quiet time for enjoying our marshes in peace, little did we know what was in store for 2020!
February: In February, we first heard of plans to host a large scale commercial dance festival on the Waterworks Meadow. The licence was to be for three years; for the first year close 8,000 people were expected to squeeze into a small site next to the Waterworks Nature Reserve and 15,000 in subsequent years.
March: A community campaign against the Waterworks Festival began. The mobilisation quickly built momentum and film maker Sheridan Flynn produced a neat film capturing community sentiment against the festival: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q18JkWxD79U&ab_channel=SaveLeaMarshes
April: We published the inspiring story of the Saving of Walthamstow Marshes by campaigner Mike Knowles: https://www.saveleamarshes.org.uk/2020/04/22/the-saving-of-the-walthamstow-marshes/
We prepared for the licensing hearing announced for the following month to decide the Waterworks Festival application.
May: The licensing hearing for the Waterworks Festival took place and the Licensing Committee decided to refuse the festival, to the great relief of Save Lea Marshes and many local people who had worked very hard to oppose it. Particularly important in this refusal was the reference to the threat to the Schedule 1 wildlife at the neighboring Nature Reserve from loud amplified sound.
June: Plans for the development of the Gasworks site, adjacent to the Waterworks, were announced. The site is heavily contaminated with toxic materials so this planning application was of particular concern. We objected.
Despite the pandemic, large numbers of people were assembling on the Waterworks Meadow and swimming in the River Lea. Litter was a real problem and the rangers were overwhelmed.
July: Save Lea Marshes announced its crowdfunder to ‘Rewild the Waterworks Meadow‘.
The rationale was to commission a number of wildlife surveys of the area in order to collect vital ecological data, in order to safeguard the site from future inappropriate use and development, as well as design a rewilding program for the meadow.
August: SLM did not have a quiet summer this year; we knew that the much delayed planning application for the new Olympic-size ice centre on Leyton Marsh was due to come to Waltham Forest Planning Committee anytime. We gathered together wide ranging and comprehensive objections to the plans and lobbied the Greater London Authority for a refusal of a over-development on protected Metropolitan Open Land (MOL).
September: We continued our campaign against the new ice centre, aware of the destruction the plan would bring, as well as further undermining of the land’s status as protected MOL. We continued to share our planning objections in a series of ‘Objections of the Week‘
October: We were delighted to reach our target for our ‘Rewild the Waterworks Meadow’ crowdfunder. Surveys had already begun in the summer and will be ongoing until June 2021, when our data will be collated and shared with the Lee Valley Regional Park Authority and the public who funded the surveys.
Aware that the Planning Officer for Waltham Forest Council had recommended approval for the new double-size Lee Valley Ice Centre, we staged a socially distanced ‘Ghost Demo for Wildlife’ on site livestreamed on YouTube and Facebook Live. The demo was a protest for all the wildlife that would be displaced and lost by the construction of the facility and associated car park, for which part of the SINC, hedgerow and twenty mature trees would be destroyed.
November: The new ice centre received planning approval from Waltham Forest Council, much to our dismay and concern. Local wildlife enthusiast and one of our surveyors, the wonderful Ian Phillips produced this excellent short video detailing the likely impact on local species: https://www.saveleamarshes.org.uk/2020/11/08/my-thoughts-on-the-approval-of-the-new-lea-valley-ice-centre/
December: Just a few days after the Greater London Authority granted a unsatisfactory approval for the new ice centre, the LVRPA began destructive clearance works, putting wildlife that may have already gone into hibernation under threat and chopping down twenty mature trees on site.
It was a very sad sight to witness. On the day that no ecologist was on site as promised, there was a brave occupation of one of the iconic willows on Leyton Marsh.
As soon as the clearance of the site was accomplished, a funfair moved on site, directly adjacent to the flattened area. It was dismantled before even opening due to the pandemic.
Not content with receiving approval for the new Olympic-sized ice centre on public land, the LVRPA published their intention to have the MOL boundaries altered so protected status is no longer conferred on this area.
The Authority are also lobbying for MOL status to be removed at the Waterworks car park and Waterworks Centre, for purposes of ‘development’ and ‘leisure’.
We will clearly have a busy 2021 too! Thank you for all your support, have a safe new year and keep posted here.
Ian Phillips has made this video about the impact of the new ice centre on wildlife.
The decision to approve the new double-size ice centre on Leyton Marsh will be considered by the Mayor of London’s office. We thank Baroness Jenny Jones for writing this letter on behalf of our campaign.
To: john.finlayson@london.gov.uk
Baroness Jones of Moulsecoomb
House of LordsDear Mr Finlayson
I am writing to object to this application being accepted and to ask that the GLA intervene on the basis that the proposed expanded ice centre represents inappropriate development on Metropolitan Open Land (MOL) and that the applicant has failed to demonstrate that Very Special Circumstances exist sufficient to outweigh any harm to MOL.
The choice of site by the applicant fails to comply with the London Plan regarding transport – the Lea Bridge Road is a heavily congested single carriageway unsuitable for the increased usage that will result from this development. In addition,the applicant has not provided details of adequate mitigation measures in terms of biodiversity and urban greening.
This development represents an unacceptable loss of green space without good cause and contrary to good practice.
Best wishes,
cc.
Protest the decision to build a double-sized ice centre on Leyton Marsh!
Obligatory: wear masks (ideally white or wildlife-themed). Strict social distancing of 2m at all times.
Optional: dress as a ghost to represent the wildlife that will lose their lives to development. Bring your own “ghost hedgehog”.
To watch the livestream via Facebook Live, Like and Follow our Save Lea Marshes Events Page here: https://www.facebook.com/Save-Lea-Marshes-Events-100825488499427/
