56 LETS GET HAVERING WAVERING
Rainham Marsh is an area of old grazing marsh in the
South of the London Borough of Havering. The marsh complex
of which it forms approximately the southern quarter also
includes Wennington and Avely marshes, the whole of which
is presently to be declared a site of Special Scientific
Interest by the Nature Conservancy Council.
Rainnam Marsh is listed as a site of international
importance for its wintering Teal population. Short Eared
Owls are present in good numbers and the site also
contains a large proportion of the breeding Stonechats of
Essex. Plants recorded, include Puccinellia rupestris
arid Ranunculus baudotii.
Because of Havering Borough Council's desire to
develop 230 acres for industrial use the marsh is now
subject to a planning enquiry. Conservationists and
other local people are in the process of organizing
themselves to defend the marshed. Once gone they are
gone forever.
Of the 11,749 hectares of coastal grassland in
Essex existing in 1938 only 2,080 hectares survived
through to 1981, a decrease of 83%.
Havering Council will argue that they need to
develop the site in the nope of providing much needed
jobs. Jobs are needed but the defenders of the marsh
will argue that Havering contains many acres of derelict
factory sites and thousands and thousands of square
feet of empty factories. Jobs should be created there
and not in such a valuable and irreplaceable green site.
The public enquiry into the future of the site is
to be held in 1987. It is vital that all naturalists and
especially those living in Havering make their opinions
known, preferably by writing to their local councillors.
Havering is a "hung council" administered at
present by a coalition of Conservatives and Ratepayers.
Pressure can be applied. We cannot afford to sit back and
watch our countryside disappear or in years to come we
may have to remove the word field from the Essex Field
Club. The time for compromise has gone, gone with the
83% of our coastal marshes which have already-been lost
for ever. Pight for the 17%.
For further information including lists of local
councillors names and addresses, contact :
D.A.SHITH. INGREBOURNE 75555.