Wildlife Circus

  This week saw the eagerly awaited publication of Wild City, by Florence Wilkinson. This issued a manifesto for promoting greater awareness of the needs of urban wildlife; focused on some unusual urban species and gave voice to some interesting wildlife campaigns. Florence came to the Cambridge Road Estate during September 2020 and listened to bats using bat detection equipment,  foraging around the dark 'twittens', or alleyways. She has produced a very faithful account of that evening and what we saw and heard pg 74-84 including a mention of  the Nathusius' pipistrelle that is one of three pipistrelle species regularly recorded on the estate. On page 225-233 she continues 'underground', on the slow worms at Kingsmeadow. Its a lovely book with several London entries including: the hedgehogs at Regents Park, London's green roof guru, and the Culex molestus (you will have to make a purchase in order to ascertain what one is)!

    This is a Christmas tale of voices heard at last, more specifically a tale of: - an arthritic woman in a meadow; an emerald green - belt of slow worms trapped in front of a reptile fence; an entourage of politicians.  Stage right Scene Kings meadow. Despite neighbourhood zoom meetings (at a cost of £2,500 for guest appearances) elucidating tomes of written disapproval on methodology and mitigation, noone actually listened to residents living in the ward on the dysfunctional deed that has now been done. Consultants counter -  commentaries were paid for and published (although the invoices for these have disappeared). But none can ignore the-: small size of the site; the narrow strip (marked grey in the plan) that confines the animals; the membrane that covers the former car park that will entrap them; and the three developments of 7, 5 and 5 storeys that will surround them, blocking out the sun (a pre-requisite for a basking creature). The membrane or liner...

During September 2020 I videoed members of a slow worm colony at Kingsmeadow, put them on YouTube and sent the link to Kingston council with a comment for the planning file. They instructed a consultant to provide a counter- commentary, thus challenging any assertions about the value of the feature, seeking to minimise the importance of an urban population of slow worms. The invoices for their counter - commentary have since gone missing according to the council's Annual Inspection of Accounts. This is because Countrywide Properties instruct and pay the consultants and then invoice the council for the work. The costs are higher than what would be expected, as there is an administrative overage on the invoices and it seems Kingston council like wasting our money. Forward to  2021, with several iterations of Ecological Management Plans;  diarising them is important for future reference, and is indicative that it is not the ecology dictating their genesis. The version made a pl...