Wildlife Circus

  Presentation of the plans for Surrey County Hall by RER at the  October meeting of the Kingston Society Tiffins School Surrey County Council (SCC) proposes the repurposing of Surrey County Hall and associated buildings to create a mix of refurbishment and potential partial demolition to include a mixed-use development, including approximately 500 new residential units, additional space for new courts for the Crown Court, office space, shops or financial/professional services and car park.They have submitted an EIA scoping document which omits all of the ecological features at the site. see www.surreycchq.com The Grade 1 Listed buildings will be retained and a new double mansard roof will be put on a flat roof to create symmetry (or profit). Within this application the prison cells will be retained and the courts retained as lecture theatres or film sets. There will be a hub with rentable space with a cafe area and the Trampery model (see Hackney) was expounded. The cobbles a...

One of Britain’s most endangered trees is the native black poplar Populus nigra. Around the country there are a number of authorities with Biodiversity Action Plans to promote this species including in Greater London. The plans promote actions which increase public awareness over the plight of the tree; create inventories of existing trees; and carry out additional planting of locally sourced cuttings. Some plans state the need to use planning policy and Tree Protection Orders to protect trees that might be threatened. Others go as far as to remove flood-banks and create conditions suitable for floodplain woods exactly as those in Ham-between Ham Lands and the river Thames - where there are two fairly prostrate native black poplars. An analysis of Norfolk BP tree locations showed they were often associated with kilns, farms, mills, smithies and malthouses indicating they had been planted rather than a product of natural seed dispersal. The wood was fire resistant, can resist paraffin...

 Yet another issue for Norbiton and overdevelopment in an Area of Deficiency to access to open space: loss of biodiversity, development of land destined for leisure but a very sad destruction of a population of slow worms. 16 slow worms at Kingsmeadow https://youtu.be/S_qOgYzJIlM     I have written the following letter to the Planning Department. Dear Kingston Planning Department I have objected to the above application on the council’s website but I wanted to add a video of the slow worms at this site https://youtu.be/S_qOgYzJIlM to show that the mitigation strategy is also flawed due to the numbers of animals as well as the timing as indicated in the document attached. This is an unusual population in such an urban area. The site was only surveyed during July and I have found a greater number of adult slow worms than the report attests. Slow worms are protected under the Wildlife and Countryside as amended under the CROW ACT 2000 but also they are a Priority Species u...