Many of you will have been aware of the proposed theme park development at Swanscombe Marshes which has been discussed for several years. This is an area that we have visited as a group and several of our members are regular visitors. Some might remember Peter Beckenham guiding us around on one of our early visits.
Swanscombe Marshes
It is a great area for wildlife and an oasis in the middle of development and industry. It is a precious area for many species which are already being squeezed out of our local environment. It is very sad to see this wonderful habitat being threatened yet again.
With all that in mind Peter set up an online petition against the current development proposals a while ago and as it is now back in the news it has had more signatories recently. If you follow the link below it will give you all the details you need. Please sign the petition, it only takes a moment to do and please tell your friends and share the petition.
For more information on Swanscombe Marshes, use the search function on our home page and it will bring up our Group visits. Or “google” Swanscombe Marshes and it will lead you to much of the information which has been produced over the years. In addition there are facebook and twitter feeds for those of you who use social media.
https://you.38degrees.org.uk/petitions/save-swanscombe-marshes-say-no-to-london-paramount
Thanks to Julie for highlighting this.
Sue
Does the RSPB have an official line on saving Swanscombe Marshes
In reply to your comment Rob, I have now had a reply that the RSPB are watching the situation, and are in conversations with other conservation groups. When I hear any more I’ll update the website.
Hi Rob, I’m awaiting a response from RSPB and will let you know when I hear from them. Our usual contact is furloughed at present.
Signed. Might be a good time to contact the Councillor for the area after a few more signatures have been added. They’d been lots about how important being able to get out into nature has been recently.
Might have more impact if individuals sent emails to the Councillor. Certainly for a local development that wasn’t welcomed either the Council or Councillor said one petition with 1,000 signatures counted as one response to the formal consultation. 1,000 would be harder to ignore
Unfortunately there is still a lot of momentum for this project (see the link below) so I think all we can hope for is that some of the marsh will be left untouched.
https://londonresort.info/
Thanks Sue
The consultation exercise has opened now so if you want to save Swanscome Marshes, I recommend filling in the questionnaire https://londonresort.info/consultation/
Rob
Thanks Rob, I’ve done a separate post on the website with details and links.
I’ve been thinking a lot about this. Given the government’s declaration of a climate change emergency, and the huge importance of wetlands in sequestering carbon, could that be another angle that could be used? Is there someone who could work out the carbon that will be released by the destruction of the marshes, and add that as another angle? I’m not a lawyer, but wonder if the climate change emergency declaration has any teeth at all that might be useful here?
I spent a lot of my growing up years in Swanscombe in the 50s my grandmother lived in Craylands Lane with the cement factory at the bottom of the road. There was a bridge we walked over where there was a large gully, we were told adders were down there ! I loved being there as we lived in Chatham so had a train journey to get there.
I now live in New Zealand with my family and the thought of having a theme park in Swanscombe, is just unthinkable, I realise things need to change but can’t somethings just be left alone.