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In 2012 various botanical surveys of Lea Marshes were compared. To view this comparison table click this link. | |||
| Walthamstow Marshes: The Issue |
Fact Sheet
THE ISSUE
The Lee Valley Regional Park Authority, which owns Walthamstow Marshes, has applied to the Greater London Council for planning permission to quarry gravel from the marsh. The plan of the Authority is to first remove the 8 feet of topsoil, and then quarry out thirty feet of gravel below. The operation will be in two stages.
The north marsh (i.e. that part of the marsh between the railway line and the Warwick reservoirs) will be dug out first; and the southern marsh (that between the railway line and Leyton marsh) will be dug out next. The quarrying will last five to six years. The gravel will be removed by 20 ton lorries, some 75 to 150 a day. They will enter and leave the marsh by using a specially constructed slip road built into Lea Bridge Road. Sometime after the quarrying is over, the north marsh will be turned into a lake for motorized water sports, with a special access road provided, parking areas and other related facilities. The south marsh will be filled back in, and turned into playing fields.
- 1. The quarrying will destroy Walthamstow Marshes. It is the last of the genuine marshes along the River Lea.
- 2. The quarrying will take from East Londoners one of their greatest local assets, namely, the only bit of real countryside inside London. The marsh is actually open and wild. Common land and rights of way will be gone.
- 3. There are estates and houses facing onto the marsh, only 50 yards from where the site plant will be. All local people will be subjected to horrific noise and pollution for at least the next six years. And when the operation is over, there will be no return to tranquillity, which all local people enjoy. Instead, the north marsh, onto which the estates, parks and houses face, will be for noisy motorized sports.
- 4. The gravel pits, some 30 to 40 feet deep, will be a source of danger to local people, especially children.
- 5. The lorries using the site, and other vehicles in addition, will increase the congestion which motorists already suffer on Lea Bridge Road, and in neighbouring boroughs.
- 6. In destroying the marsh the Lea Valley Regional Park Authority destroy forever an area of incalculable natural value (plant life, bird life, insect life) and an open-air amenity for East Londoners, whom the Authority has never consulted on the matter.
- 7. The gravel might be of great financial importance; gravel might well be a very desirable commodity in the South East. Its location, so close to central London, no doubt makes it more valuable. But the gravel will prove only a short-term gain; the loss to East London will be incalculable.
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