20080929 WLA “Autumn Watch” Meeting

Present main stakeholders for the Autumn Watch Project and local residents.

• • Jon Best, Southwark Ecology Officer, received the complaints that the WLA had problem with litter and fly tipping. He had a number of meetings with the contractors and supervisors for area cleaning and specified that although the conditions are still being rectified, he was assured that area should be cleaned every day.

  • Enrique (from the London Wild Life Trust) Explained that the “Autumn Watch” will take place starting every day at 10am:

    • • Thursday the 23^rd of October with a team of Wild Life Trust volunteers will provide the foundation for the work.

      • This involve the main cleaning and preparation for the planting and the transport of the necessary material, etc.

      • This stage does not require much input and will be fundamentally self-sufficient. Local help will be appreciated but lot of physical work will be involved.

      • Friday the 24^th of October will be the main day in which local organisations, residents and volunteers will be asked to join to finish the work started the previous day and to do the planting. The day should conclude the bulk of the area transformation. The local Schools will be also involved

      • Saturday the 24^th of October again will be a day in which residents are encouraged to attend but the work involved should be mostly done and the day is to be used to publicise the event with stalls etc.

  • Naomi Arnold (from the BBC “Breathing Space” Program) will provide a number of leaflets and posters for distribution in the area and will ensure the presence of camera and media attention for the Friday and Saturday events with the “Autumn Watch”, “Wild About Garden” series, etch.

  • The occasion itself will be part of a chain of local events involving green spaces and nature preservation (locally there will be on in Burgess Park with the “Friend of the Park”, the Southwark cyclist group will be organising a mass cycling between local green spaces and other actions in pocket parks, etc.) .

  • Saturday will be dedicated to the area embellishment and the erection of signage.

  • Ask if it is possible to add at least a small sign to the other end of the Wild Life Area she undertook to see if there were enough funds to be able to squeeze one in.

  • Enrique (Wild Life Trust) wanted to erase 90% of the surviving old and new growth of buddleia bush and replace it with Hazel and wild flower bulb but local residents strongly objected on the ground that the Hazel will take a long time to grow and that the new proposed plants and trees to be introduced are not proven to survive and the cutting of the old bush will deprive the area of its characteristics, loved by the residents. A compromise solution was reached.

  • Some younger bush of Buddleia will be eradicated a few old ones on the West side of the area (next to the basketball pitch, that will go through a major renovation and the substitution of the dividing fence with a taller one; therefore the abutting vegetation will be affected anyway). The removal of younger buddleia bushes in the areas that have been already worked on and the severe trimming but not eradication of the remaining old stock of the bush on the south side. The bush on the north east sector should not be touched.

  • The accompanying hazel and privet bush should be added to the south side and should be full grown in 10 years time.

  • The central swath of nettle and blackberry should be reduced but some left.

  • Jon Best confirmed the status of Borough Open Land for the area but it seems that there is still some confusion or resistance to the notion that it is an integral part of the Surrey Square Park.

  • Naomi proposed a new name for the Wild Life Area as :

  • “Surrey Square Community Nature Garden”

The meeting than concluded.

(Old) Wildlife Area Introduction page Return to the 2008 timeline on "My Surrey Square" site

Up one level to the Autumnwatch page