Road Development and the Natural Environment
of Essex. 2nd - 4th November, 1973
About 25 people attended Debden House Residential
Centre over the weekend to discuss the varied
threats that extensive road building will bring
to Essex.
Summaries of the papers presented will be
published in the Bulletin and two are in this
issue, on hedgerow birds and roadside vergeplants.
We assembled at the centre at 6.30 pm on the
Friday in time for dinner and then transferred to
the lecture room where Colin Ranson, Deputy
Regional Officer for East Anglia of the Nature
Conservancy introduced the course and first
speaker,
Dr. Mooney of the North East London Polytechnic
Consultancy Centre outlined the various problems,
noise, lead pollution, etc of a major motorway
and in this case the M11 already being built in
west Essex.
A chance for coffee and a look at the many
exhibits was had before retiring for the night.
On the Saturday Mr. Gameson of the British Roads
Federation outlined the economic need for a
strategic road network throughout the country.
After coffee John Hedges the Essex County
Archaeologist spoke on the archaeological
implications of road building with slides to
illustrate his numerous examples.
After an excellent lunch Ken Hoy of the Friends
of Epping Forest and the Suntrap Field Centre
took us through Epping Forest to see what would
go if the M16 passed through Epping Forest. We
also went to viewpoints to see the route of the
M11 and other possible routes for the Ml6. For
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