"OH LOOK ORCHID!" and then came the bulldozer

[troy ap De skog]

Hi guys...
well im totaly infuriated and have been exstreamly busy the last week becouse; The place were you can always find me got bulldozed with out warning..
(http://harefield.uxbridgegazette.co.uk/local-authority/)

over the summer i carried out an intesive survey of the flora of this area in which i found many rare and endangered plants. including; bee orchid, early purple orchid, greater broomrape, White horehound and downy hemp nettle.
whist doing siad study i found the wronge end of an adder to, but lets not go over that painful one.
as well as bulldozzing over many rare plants they bulldozed over a large stand of japanese knotweed spreading the plant matter over the site.

the area has open acess straight in to a nature reserve on the whole lengh of its border, and is used for grazzing and hunting by many of the speices of animal and bird with in the reserve.

the area was a well used community space use by every one from dog walkers and nature lovers to local scout groups.

 

[_scorpio_]

for gods sake! i hope the fuel runs out and the vastly growing concrete civilization is snuffed out soon! why are people so blind to nature?!!

 

[maddave]

Can they not get the environment agency in to slap a SSSI on it??

 

[Shewie]

That's grim news, it's always sad to hear of these green spaces getting stripped and built on.

 

[troy ap De skog]

well the responce i got the the EA was go to your local wildlife trust and when i said i work very closely with them on a regular baises they said the were unable to help me..

so ill try phoning them agian tomrrow and hope i get to talk to a useful chappy/chapette who understand the langue called english, and can help me.

now i have to find a replacement for that part of my foraging range.. more walking less food..

 

[launditch1]

WHEN you destroy a blade of grass
You poison England at her roots:
Remember no man's foot can pass
Where evermore no green life shoots.

You force the birds to wing too high
Where your unnatural vapours creep:
Surely the living rocks shall die
When birds no rightful distance keep.

You have brought down the firmament
And yet no heaven is more near;
You shape huge deeds without event,
And half-made men believe and fear.

Your worship is your furnaces,
Which, like old idols, lost obscenes,
Have molten bowels; your vision is
Machines for making more machines.

O, you are busied in the night,
Preparing destinies of rust;
Iron misused must turn to blight
And dwindle to a tetter'd crust.

The grass, forerunner of life, has gone,
But plants that spring in ruins and shards
Attend until your dream is done:
I have seen hemlock in your yards.

The generations of the worm
Know not your loads piled on their soil;
Their knotted ganglions shall wax firm
Till your strong flagstones heave and toil.

When the old hollow'd earth is crack'd,
And when, to grasp more power and feasts,
Its ores are emptied, wasted, lack'd,
The middens of your burning beasts

Shall be raked over till they yield
Last priceless slags for fashioning high,
Ploughs to wake grass in every field,
Chisels men's hands to magnify.

Gordon Bottomley

 

[Melonfish]

he land is adjacent to the Old Park Woods, of which records date back to the Doomsday Book and is also near to Harefield Hospital.

Four foot high brambles and shrubbery which housed creatures including deer and newts have been absolutely destroyed, their only remnants being piles of wood which look set to be burned.

That is your key, that is the reason the trusts will take interest, firstly the adjacent woods are ancient woodland so this is just an extention (naturally occuring) so there's the woodland trust on your side
as for Deer and Newts, well need we say more? Newts are Endangered as it is and tbh i'd want to know why the environment agency aren't slapping the building firm with some SERIOUS lawsuits around about now... where's the planning and conservation work? where's the site surveys and reports of habitat?
get onto the wildlife trust in numbers and you may be able to put a stop to it, if they can slap a protection order on the land that is, otherwise it is theirs to do as they please (if they own it that is)

got to say tho this is bloody disgusting!

 

[Toddy]

If they have spread Japanese Knotweed the police should be informed. That's an illegal action and the contractors are liable for it. There are huge fines involved.

The council will have someone who's remit it is to deal with that type of invasive weed, tell them about it and then contact your local paper and tell them about it too.
Tell them about what you found, and the rare plants and amphibians you recorded, tell them about the Japanese knotweed problem that is now a major issue spread about the site.
If no one complains nothing changes.

I hate hearing about land being trashed like this

cheers,
Toddy

 

[Mesquite]

Bill Hickson is head of Hillingdon Enforcement team. His email is Bhickson@hillingdon.gov.uk.

If you want his boss then it's Kathy Sparks, ksparks@hillingdon.gov.uk

They ought to be looking into the fact that knotweed is being moved about illegally.

 

[Alexlebrit]

There was a piece on You & Yours today

http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/youandyours/listenagain/wednesday.shtml

about using the law to get an area of land declared as a "village green" which basically involves showing the public have accessed the land for recreation for more than 20 years, it might be something you could consider, especially given the level of likely support from the people in that article. Check out the Open Spaces Society website

http://www.oss.org.uk/village-greens/

And of course if it's declared a green, then they'll never get planning permission.

 

[BOD]

Developer is a word that sets me off.

I'm sorry to hear this

 

[mr dazzler]

Typical jobsworths, no where to be seen when they are REALLY needed "they are doing nothing wrong"??? *** you wouldnt believe the hassle I had to go through with planning for my house extension with all the extra unecssary cost. It soundns to me like there could be a cosy CP type arangement between comer homes and the local authority? possibly? maybe not.......any way whatever happens, wether they get consent or not, the flora and fauna has now gone. Just like when they set fires in Greece to get building land? Possibly? Maybe? Or a listed building that stands in the way of progress suddenly gets burned by arsonists? Frankly I hope whoever is responsible for this act of gross vandalism ends up with a massive crippling fine, preferably jail

 

[Rebel]

Like Toddy mentioned it is illegal to spread the Japanese Knotweed around, it has to be either poisoned or removed correctly and burned.

So even if you can't get anybody concerned about them destroying rare fauna they should take action over the Knotweed.

http://www.defra.gov.uk/wildlife-pets/wildlife/management/non-native/knotweed.htm

 

[om2ae]

Hi

It is not the EA that designate SSSi's it natural england, get hold of the local man and inform him of the problems, JP is a non-native and as mentioned to spread it around is illegal, inform the police and NE.

If you already work with the WT in the area they will know the NE man to get hold of

Martin

 

[_scorpio_]

sue 'em for all theyve got and replant some plants that used to be there and hope the others come back.

 

[craeg]

My blood is boiling over this abomination on our natural history X-(
Great work by you but shame on the lazy good for nothing council as they have, yet again failed your community and the flora, fauna and habitat in their area of responsibiltiy. Never let anything of natural or historical value get in the way of development and progress

Good luck, keep up with your campaign and hopefully some profit-motivated cretin will go to jail for these crimes, fingers crossed.

Rant over

Craeg

 

[EdS]

EA for knotweed.

Natural England for SSSI, landscape and ancient woods.

 

[badgeringtim]

I think it has all been said above although Natural England do have an enforcement team as well.
They may be interested in the knotweed as well as the damage and species damaged. EA are the lead partner for advice on knotweed but if it cam eto a prosecution it would probably be through the local wildlife officer and the enforcement group of Natural England. Also the council may actually be interested in the knotweed, or should be. Oh and there is very good advice on dealing with it freely available on eht EA website - i dont believe it includes burning it which is not a good mechanism of control.

Hearing these things makes me very sad, not least becuase i work with many developers and they are, on the whole becoming far more aware of legslation and wildlife consideration. Its the case that there are still people who are not and like always give the majority a bad name. I wouldnt claim that theyr all perfect but so much better than 10 years ago.

If you want a contact in the enforcement team please PM me, im also happy to help out if i can with anything else.
I would strongly suggest putting the complaint in writing to all the above, a phone call is easy to fob off a formal letter often goes up the chain.....
If you happened to get the company name and a photo it would be much easier.

 

[susi]

It's very sad when they do this, especially when there are rare species present.

But...

A DOG walker's paradise and wildlife haven has been bulldozed to make way for 80 apartments.

You guys keep letting so many people in, they have to be housed somewhere. Am sure I read somewhere that immigration to the UK was something like 50,000 a year in the mid 1990s, but is around 600,000 per year for the last few or so!

I don't want to turn this into a political debate, but you have to face facts. Your island is already heavily populated already and it isn't the Doctor's Tardis

 

[Melonfish]

Hearing these things makes me very sad, not least becuase i work with many developers and they are, on the whole becoming far more aware of legslation and wildlife consideration. Its the case that there are still people who are not and like always give the majority a bad name. I wouldnt claim that theyr all perfect but so much better than 10 years ago.

I worked for a large engineering consultancy firm 2002-2004 and the first thing that suprised me was that although these guys did road, rail, clean and dirty water (and assorted other bits) they had a very large Environmental team.

The job of these guys was to accurately assess the impact of the works the company had been contracted to do and report whether it was feasable or it broke any laws or whatnot, what could be saved or relocated and how to minimise whatever damage was going to happen.

Obviously in an office full of suits these guys were all hippy wanabe's sandals and hemp clothing was big for some (actually i like hemp stuff)

anyway from whats happened i reckon the owning company have just hired a construction/clearence firm to do the work without going to a propper consultancy (trying to save money)
However if they have had consultation its worth finding out who they are because they can face some serious fines here.