Monday 29 March 2010

Criticism of garden 'car-parking' two days running in Daily Telegraph shocker

A good letter on Urban Greenery in the 28th March edition from an Anthony Rodriguez in Staines, Middlesex.

He lamented the loss of street trees to bad town planning and fears over subsidence and went on the say that 'It is also wrong that so many urban gardens have vanished under concrete and paving, especially in Greater London ........ These trends despoil the visual environment and make a mockery of the efforts to reduce flooding and climate change'.

WELL SAID!

An article entitled 'Birds take refuge in gardens to survive cruel winter' , reporting on the results of the latest RSPB 'Big Garden Birdwatch', ended with the news that 'Since 1979, when the survey started, sparrows, starlings, blackbirds and robins have all seen a decline, in part due to habitat loss through development such as concreting gardens to create parking spaces.'

So can we look forward to this august publication championing the right of other species not just to exist, albeit in ever-dwindling numbers, but to thrive, instead of bleating about 'hard-pressed motorists' every time there's a (much-needed) increase in fossil fuel prices?

TIME TO START TAKING SIDES FOLKS ........

Thursday 25 March 2010

Haringey Council asks residents not to pave gardens

Haringey London Borough Council has recently published its Biodiversity Action Plan, which is ahead of some others I could mention in terms on specific plans and the apparent strength of written intent to implement them:

http://www.haringey.gov.uk/index/environment_and_transport/leisure_nature_and_conservation/nature_and_conservation_conservation/conservation_biodiversity_action_plan.htm

In pursuit of a self-proclaimed 'Greenest Borough' strategy, the Gardens Habitat Action Plan states that the objective is to (inter alia):

- highlight and protect the overall resource for wildlife provided by gardens (public and private) and housing estate land.
- improve individual gardens and housing estate land as habitat for a range of local wildlife.

and

- identify and protect the garden resource within Haringey by 2015

There is an intention to:

- Produce a report on the change in the amount, type (e.g. paving/lawn) and distribution of private gardens over time within Haringey.

There will be initiatives to encourage residents to garden in a wildlife-friendly way.

The objective of '4.2 Produce and implement wildlife friendly management plans for housing estates (2 per annum)' looks particularly interesting.

And, although local Councils currently have little legal power to prevent loss of gardens to car-parking and the like, at least Haringey has bitten the bullet insofar as it can, and explicitly says:

How You Can Help
• If you are lucky enough to have a garden don’t pave over it!

(Their exclamation mark, not mine).

Credit to Haringey for this.