|
Hackney Marshes User Group (HMUG) Responses to planning applications and proposals
  
  
31st March 2010 – The Tree Nursery is no longer under threat!
Members of Hackney Marshes User Group met this morning with Trent Burke, LBH project manager for the ELCRP recycling site.
We were informed that the ELCRP facility would be sited entirely within the boundary of the Hackney Marsh Parks Depot, and that there will be no intrusion on to the Tree Nursery land.Very many thanks to all of you who have given your time in opposing the threat to the Tree Nursery. A formal announcement follows.
Good news!
We have just met with Trent Burke from the council, and he has informed us that the relocation of ELCRP has been revised so that it no longer entails a loss of tree nursery land.
Some of the composting bays will be located along the northern boundary of the tree nursey in the council depot. All in all a good decision, but not disimilar to the one originally proposed and which we said was acceptable! We have voiced concern about the odours which sometimes emanate from the composting process, but it is thought that this will be minimal (or non-existent) as long as the material is turned regularly, which the council have told us will be the case. There is still a question about how new European Union regulations regarding composting sites are to be implemented, and if the latest proposals cannot be accomodated then the bays will be used for the park's green waste and ELCRP will have to be relocated.
So a big thank you to all who sent letters of support to the council officers, councillors and the Hackney Gazette, which made people take notice. We should celebrate in style, and as the tree nursery is ten years old this year, we will do so when the weather gets warmer!!
For your information also, is a letter from Johnnie Walker (below), which was printed in the Hackney Gazette a couple of weeks ago, and demonstrates, yet again, that the proposals for the new 'hub' leave much to be desired even from the point of view of the footballers!
Thanks again and well done.
Annie Chipchase
(Chair HMUG)
Further information about the lack of thought gone into the new South
Marsh Sports Hub and Olympics / Council's empty promises.
Taken from Hackney Gazette Letters Page March 4th 2010
Written by Johnny Walker, Chairman, Hackney and Leyton Football League
'I do not want to use the opinion columns of your excellent newspaper for
a slanging match with Cllr Guy Nicholson, but this is not the first
occasion I have been obliged to cross swords with him.
The Gazette kindly afforded me a column in the sports section in which I
could reply to a previous claim that the Olympics would be a great and
wonderful event that we should all welcome and celebrate.
Cllr Nicholson paints a wonderful picture for your readers (matters of
opinion, Feb 18th) regarding building facilities for footballers and
residents who would want to enjoy this once expansive and iconic green
open space - for instance changing rooms, community classrooms and a
cafe-come-bar.
What he doesn't tell you is that there will not be enough of the new
dressing rooms to go round and, as a consequence, our local football
leagues will have to stagger kick off times. One team will have to wait to
get changed until another team vacates the changing room.
All of us who administrate local football leagues consider this a
ludicrous situation that will inevitably cause chaos at such a large
facility as Hackney Marshes.
It is a situation we have been told we must overcome because, when and if
as promised the East Marsh pitches are returned after the Olympic beast
has devoured all it can eat, the problem will remain.
Although they say the pitches will be put back, they will have no
facilities - no changing rooms or a car park, in spite of having in my
possession documents stating that new facilities would be placed on East
Marsh also.
I also have a DVD here of a slide presentation clearly showing the
placement of these facilities on the East Marsh. Perhaps, I can jog Cllr
Nicholson's mind of the occasion when he was present and proudly showing
the said slide presentation at an open evening.
Regarding his statement about pitch availability, Cllr Nicholson states
that while all disruption takes place, 60-plus pitches will remain for
footballers to play on. I am able to inform him that for a period only 46
pitches will be available an for the 2010/2011 we will have only 56
pitches.
I'll give the councillor the benefit of the doubt and say that he has been
misinformed, or he's counting some mini-pitches in with the total.
Either way his words disguise the real problems facing the footballing
community.
Perhaps he could take himself to the Marshes one Sunday morning and see
the ever mounting chaos because of the lack of facilities.
This situation will be heightened when everyone is being pushed into the
limited space of the soon-to-be new South Marsh hub.
He might like to show his face when footballers are milling around in
pouring rain and howling winds because another team is still in the
dressing rooms they have to use.
As regards to the Nike £300,000 compensation money that he states was used
to set up Hackney Youth Sports Fund - very commendable, I'm sure, and I am
the first person to say we should encourage young people to play sport,
but sport is not just about youth.
The Hackney and Leyton Football League have been providing a facility for
the young and old to participate in the national game for more than 60
years. We have never been funded, our teams struggle to pay their fees and
only some of them have a sponsor, possibly a pub or a club.
They can't call themselves community clubs although they are certainly a
part of the community. Don't they deserve some of this Nike money? After
all, it was acquired on the back of football and the iconic Hackney
Marshes, the home of grass-roots football.'
This Letter to Hackney Gazette, 18th February 2010, provides some background detail on the situation.
Planning proposals for Tree Nursery and East London Community Recycling Project (ELCRP)
This provides some background detail on the situation and our reason for writing to the Hackney Gazette:
In early May 2009, HMUG was presented with plans for the South Marsh Sports Hub development by Mick Beanse (Hackney 2012 Unit). The plans included a new layout for the car park covering the area currently occupied by East London Community Recycling Project (ELCRP) and we asked what was happening to the composting facilities. We were told that this must be a mistake and that ELCRP would not be affected. Annie Chipchase (Chair HMUG) subsequently had a meeting with Mick Beanse on May 13th, at which he again assured her that ELCRP would not be affected. Later plans presented to us still showed their site subsumed by a car park. HMUG contacted ELCRP to find out what they knew - which was nothing: no-one had spoken to them! We told the council, and eventually it sunk in and was a cause of major embarrassment.
This left the problem of relocating ELCRP so that the site redevelopment could proceed. An initial suggestion was that of moving ELCRP into the Park's depot and linking their compost bays with the Tree Nursery, so that we had easy access to them. This appeared fine to us and we moved two raised beds away from the fenceline to allow for this. Time passed with no further developments, apart from rumours flying around.
HMUG attended a meeting called by John Wade (Head of Green Spaces) in December 2009, to discuss another issue - and we were then presented with a plan to take the northern part of the tree nursery to provide an access road and turning circle for the public to collect compost. We objected to this, and two of our members drew up alternative plans to accomodate the composting facility within the depot with no loss of tree nursery land. We were awaiting response to this when we received an email from John Wade, saying he was 'minded' to go with the original proposal. We know that time is tight on this (the Hub development, scheduled to commence in July last year, started in January this year). Hence our letter to the Gazette.
On hearing of the Gazette's interest in the story, John Wade called a hasty meeting on 17th Feb, where he presented us with hand-drawn maps of their latest proposal. These paid no heed to our proposals and still involved a loss, though smaller, of tree nursery land. The discussion that followed showed that our alternative plans had not been 'understood'. John Wade said that there should be no loss of parking spaces - which we had to point out that there would not be. So more time has been wasted. As it currently stands, the council has said it will reconsider HMUG's proposals.
An added complication is new Environment Agency regulations coming into force in April regarding composting facilities. Neither the council, nor ELCRP, nor the EA are very clear about what these involve, and the regulations will have a bearing on the design of the composting facilities.
HMUG would like to call on your support to ensure that there is no loss of tree nursery land, which provides a valuable resource in terms of propagation and growing on of trees for planting out around the borough; food growing; and a relaxing haven. It has also become an important educational site providing free training in food growing, woodland management and low impact living. Send letters of support to the Hackney Gazette, your local councillors and John Wade (Maurice Bishop House, 17 Reading Lane, London, E8 1HH; or email John.Wade@hackney.gov.uk).
We will keep you posted. Thank you for your support.
|
