Wildlife Circus

The hearing of Planning Application  11/16502/FUL Surbiton Filter Bed Site  has been postponed to an unknown date. Kingston Council cannot determine the application without all the relevant survey information. If they determined an application, which did not fully assess the bat interest, the council could be in breach of the law. The consultants retained by the council have advised (as have Natural England, the Bat group etc) that the survey information is incomplete. This is due to the developers: a. completing only 2 surveys per year (dawn and dusk count as one); and that b. surveys were undertaken when the filter beds were not ‘in their normal state’. The applicant must demonstrate to a high degree of certainty that the development will not result in acts which could be an offence under the Habitats Regulations. This has not been done.  In order for surveys to proceed, the water in the Filter Beds must be reinstated (naturally). Members of the Bat Gro...

The Chelsea Tunnel was listed before the portal could be destroyed. Although now covered by thick vegetation it is possible to see through these pictures how the site would have looked (2002). Coal, sand, grit, shell would be loaded into hoppers on rails, to be man-propelled down the rake into the tunnels and under the road to the coalstores. Fig. 1 clearly shows the rake down to the Chelsea tunnel. There was consternation when the red pipe (Fig.2) was fitted without the appropriate permissions, across the listed tunnel although it is not known whether the Conservation Team ever carried out enforcement action. Although one brick has always been loosened to allow bat access Fig.3 , it is thought that the brick has been entirely removed in recent years, although the dense vegetation across the portal now creates a barrier into the tunnel. Fig.4. This is perceived as an unfortunate limitation on the accuracy of the eagerly awaited Archaeological Assessment, 2011, which will accompany th...

Identification of subterranean features: featuring the Lambeth Tunnel Listed buildings, structures and tunnels. All the significant buildings at Seething Wells are ‘listed’: the Nuffield Pumping Station; and Chelsea and Lambeth coal stores;  the attached tunnels and conduits; and perhaps even the suction wells are listed by default, no matter what their architectural merit. Steps were taken to remediate ‘listing oversights’ and applications were made to English Heritage (March, 2002). This included the Lambeth uncovered coalstore, associated tunnel beneath the Portsmouth Road and its demolished portal. This was granted August, 2002. Once the ‘water was tested’, applications were made (Jan, 2003) for inclusion in the statutory list apropos : Lambeth District offices and stores building (which sits atop the Lambeth Tunnel); the Lambeth Muniments Building and the small pumping station on the wharf.   G rade 11 listing was granted in October 2003 having been judged to be ...