Hillcrest Woods is Borough Grade 1 Site of Important Nature Conservation (SINC) woodland so why are Lewisham Homes building on this when this is against the London Plan guidance?
It’s a beautiful, natural environment whose value for local people is being totally ignored. Read Chris Packham’s article in the Guardian on 11th June 2018
http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2018/jun/11/chris-packham-springwatch-warns-of-ecological-apocalypse-britain
Hillcrest Woods is not labelled as a nature reserve like Devonshire Road or Garthorne Road but it is even more important as a natural environment. We already have pink campion, yellow flag iris, ramsons, bluebells, and ragged robin wildflowers which are lost and much lamented elsewhere in the UK. We naturally have bats, owls, willow warblers, great tits, woodpeckers, magpies, ducks, sparrow hawks, purple hairstreak butterflies, stag beetles, foxes, lizards, newts, frogs, toads and bees. We also have endangered and at risk species such as hobby, kestrel, swift, collard dove, sparrow and firecrest – why not protect what we already have?
We are being force-fed a vision, designed in Edinburgh, of how we want to live that is not real. In fact it’s the opposite of how we currently live or want to live in the future. Lewisham Labour party campaigned in May 2018 on its Green legacy and that the future administration would be clean and green. This development is building on Lewisham’s green legacy – why? We feel duped.
Lewisham has many spaces that would benefit from good housing development – Willow Way and the Gas Works at Bell Green. Why not build on these instead?
Lewisham has an appallingly low percentage of greenness - 14% compared to the London average of 20%. Why are you building on an already beautiful green space?
THE MAYOR’S ENVIRONMENTAL IMPLENTATION PLAN (MAY 2018) This development is in direct contravention of the Mayor’s environmental implementation plan aiming for London to become the world’s first National Park City where more than half the area is green and we conserve and enhance London’s wildlife and natural habitats.
Building on Borough Grade 1 SINC woodland containing a high percentage of ancient trees. It is an important part of the green chain walk linking Crystal Palace Park and Sydenham Hill Woods. It is the only nesting site for owls in Lewisham
It’s a wildlife corridor linking Crystal Palace Park to Sydenham Hill Woods therefore should not be destroyed. Proposed to remove 42 mature woodland trees which cannot be replaced. The importance of this green infrastructure should be protected as part of the London Plan (due 2019/20) that protects the Green Belt, Metropolitan Open Land and public green spaces and ensures no net loss in overall green cover. It should be on the All London Green Grid, the green infrastructure focus map and greenness index 2018.
The noise, air pollution, light pollution will have an adverse effect on people’s health and well being and that of the wildlife. Already a beautiful, natural, green space which people enjoy living in - this development will totally ruin it. Not enhancing the quality of life for everyone as it should do.
