Wildlife Circus

  Many noticed the draining of the water in the filter beds, even though it took place the week before Christmas. I have no hotline to the offshore company who own the site and can only hazard a guess as to why this is happening now.The water level had risen to the top of the filter beds posing a management issue and leaving it any later could fall foul of the bird breeding season. If proposed Environment Agency charges for abstraction and disharge go ahead from April 2018 it could be very expensive to discharge the water  see https://consult.environment-agency.gov.uk/new-charging-proposals-fromapril2018/ There used to be a charge for a discharge permit until deregulation followed Agency staff cuts. Abstraction for small amounts of water became free but this has not helped the environment and our local rivers such as the Crane, Hogsmill and Beverley suffer constantly from low flows. So the Agency have to reconsider but the admin causes a financial headache and ...

December , 2010 Ecologists undertake what is called an evaluation of the habitats and species within a site. This means that they assess the rarity and fragility of it's ecological communities. This is often undertaken during an Environmental Impact Assessment. An EIA is performed when requested by a planning authority. During the EIA undertaken by Thames Water at Seething Wells, some of the ecological communities were assessed as of HIGH REGIONAL VALUE. This was part due to the invertebrate fauna in the standing water.  Four water beetles were described as Nationally Notable B species, two of which were described as 'rare inland'. The bird community is complex to describe, due to many factors including: the cyclical nature of bird populations. But reed bunting, a rare breeding species once found at Filter Bed 7, is even rarer now (sadly no longer recorded in urban areas, only at the fringes of the borough). The calcareous grassy banks (see post below) once...

Legislation to Halt Biodiversity Loss This is a bit of a convoluted article but it is important  to demonstrate that our Local Planning Authority has a duty to protect Seething Wells under International Convention, (enshrined in our Planning Law). The first global agreement to protect wildlife was signed by over 150 world leaders in Rio de Janeiro in 1992. It is often called the ‘Rio Convention’ and participating countries are required to draw up plans detailing how they intend to protect their biological diversity. National Biodiversity Action Plans (BAPS) The European Union has now made the further commitment to halt biodiversity loss by 2020 at Nagoya.  All signatories to the UN Convention on Biodiversity, are supposed to draw up national biodiversity plans. Together, their voluntary actions are supposed to halt over-fishing, control invasive species, reduce pollution minimise the pressure on coral reefs from ocean acidification, and halt the loss of geneti...

Residents Planning Alliance Submission 2003 A riverside walk would be destructive and disruptive of wildlife features for very little gain. The top level of the wall is quite narrow. When measured in 1996 it was a little over 2.1m (7 feet). It is insufficient for a footway including access for the disabled. Sandwiched between the river and the Filter beds 4m (13 feet) above the Thames, the walk would require guard rails on both sides. The top of the 150 year old wall would have to be cleared of over 50 years growth of broom (see article on Spanish Broom) and trees, which form the main bird breeding habitat on the site. Engineering problems associated with constructing a path would be considerable and for what? There is no linking paths at either end of the Filter Beds.There is no reason why a walk cannot go around the site as proposed by the Residents Planning Alliance (Refer to plan, 2003).Their suggested route around the filter beds is marked in red and retains the tranquil...