The following is the text of a Press Release issued to national and local media on Thursday 2nd August. So far the ILFORD RECORDER has picked it up and featured the story and photograph on its website. The campaign is only just beginning for we have both a major battle and a war to win!
Please share with your friends - we need as many residents as possible to write to the Council.
Redbridge Council greed will trash
Country Park putting wildlife at serious risk!
When Redbridge Council’s Planning Committee approved application 2089/16 in June 2017 to extract sand and gravel on Aldborough Hatch Farm, members did not ask for, nor were given, details of the route for the haul road connecting the extraction site with the works in Hainault Road.
The only information in the public domain was a very poor diagrammatic plan for vehicle movements and a statement that the haul road would run to the north of the Aldborough Hatch Farm. At no time were we aware that the roadway would run partially through Fairlop Waters Country Park and the Local Nature Reserve registered with Natural England.
To the members of the public who attended the Planning Committee in June last year, it was obvious that income to the Council was in the forefront of some Councillors’ minds. There was a total lack of probing questions to Council Officers and public speakers. No one knew the exact route of the haul road.
Recently a plan dated October 2016 has come to light which shows clearly that the haul road will follow the boundary of Fairlop Waters Country Park. It will run adjacent to the golf course at the start of the Local Nature Reserve boundary, enter the LNR and carry on behind the Lagoon area, before crashing through the hedge on the boundary of the Aldborough Hall Equestrian Centre, where it progresses tightly along the boundary hedge with the LNR to the feed hopper on the conveyor line.
The road width will be approximately 13 metres with widening for pullover points, plus ditches and fences, bringing overall land take towards 18-20 metres at minimum point. The Brett Tarmac Ltd (BTL) Environmental Statement has a paragraph that states this eyesore of a roadway will be left in place to serve as another bridleway which would be parallel to the existing SUSTRAN bridleway in places. This is only to save finance for BTL on restoration. It has no value to the LNR, in fact it will be in our opinion quite detrimental.
Jenny Chalmers, Chairman of the Aldborough Hatch Defence Association, said: “This is deplorable. Redbridge Council has tried to hide this from the public. The Council is the land owner and we are calling on the Leader of the Council to put an immediate stop to this development. The bottom line is what is more important – financial gain to the Council or the ecological future of Fairlop Waters in London’s precious Green Belt!
The ADHA and the Fairlop Birders with the support of other local conservationists are joining forces on this campaign and are calling on the Leader of the Council Councillor Jas Athwal (who also take cabinet responsibility for Parks and open spaces) to stop this development immediately. We want all the members of the public who share our concern to email Councillor Athwal (jas.athwal@redbridge.gov.uk) and their local Councillors to that effect.
ENDS
For further information please contact:
Ron Jeffries, PRO, Aldborough Hatch Defence Association,
37 Spearpoint Gardens, Aldborough Road North, ILFORD, Essex IG2 7SX
Tel: 020 8599 7250; Mobile: 0797 488 2724; Email: ronjeffries@live.co.uk
Photograph Caption: Members of the Aldborough Hatch Defence Association, Conservationist and residents at the point on Fairlop Waters where the proposed haul road will crash through mature trees and the habitat of protected wildlife species.
Photograph: Ron Jeffries
