Wildlife Circus

  Barbara Webb ~ 1930 to 2021       www.kingston-ramblers.org memorial As far as I know, Barbara Webb was born in 1930 and came to live in the family home in Brockenhurst Avenue in 1933 (from a house in Wimbledon). She passed away in the White House nursing home, Malden Road on 10 May 2021. She lived in Winchester and then Birmingham and came back to live at the family home permanently in 1960, working at Nonsuch High School as a biology teacher. She was already a member of the Surrey Wildlife Trust and later joined the Ramblers in 1977. I met her in the 1980’s as we crossed paths on many wildlife related matters. Her earliest memories were of the Hogsmill and fields below the church. She spent a considerable amount of time on issues connected to the river including: Six-acre meadow, of course; the stables; and related management and mowing regimes. One of these sites - I remember well was Percy Gardens. During the war her family h...

The  letter below was despatched 18.6.21. We are  hoping that making this public might facilitate a response For the attention of: Stephanie Griffiths (Regen) Iqbal Ahmed (Environment) Sian Berry Zac Goldsmith Cambridge Road Estate (CRE) regeneration Cambridge Road, Kingston upon Thames 20/02942/FUL We are writing to express concern at matters disregarded at the above redevelopment (GLA’s response Planning File). We were pleased to see the GLA questioning the lack of SuDs proposed in the FRA. (Flood Risk Assessment). However, we are disappointed that the London Mayor’s own policies on Areas of Deficiency of Access to Open Space and Access to Nature have been ignored. The Mayor has committed to reducing the distance that people live from quality green space/Sites of Nature Conservation Importance - deemed as Areas of Deficiency- yet much of north Kingston is within an AoD (more than 1km from quality open space) refer to map appended. The Barton Wilmore Environ...

In 2014, I was contacted by the police after residents complained that, despite a lot of bat activity at the former Dairy Crest site, demolition was taking place. The police investigated and surveys had indeed found that there were roosting bats on the site.  There is some discrepancy regarding the number of bats and the species recorded but this cannot be substantiated several years later. I do have the original Phase 1 habitat survey that demonstrated there was habitat, of  a sort, on the site. Bat surveys and a Bat Mitigation Method Statement- as part of a Bat licence application -were submitted  to the planning file.  However, no appropriate bat mitigation and Net Gain measures for biodiversity were conditioned. This meant that none of it actually happened or if it did - then it is inappropriately sited - under multiple sources of lighting and a lack of any vegetation links. When the site was opened earlier this year for residents to move in, none of the bat mi...