President's Page
M.W.Hanson 3 Church Cottages, Church Road, Boreham, Essex CM3 3EG
For those of you in the Field Club who live in the Chelmsford area, you may be interested
to hear that the Revised Deposit Draft of the Chelmsford Borough Local Plan has been
withdrawn. Proposals in the plan included a massive housing development at Boreham
(2,000 houses) on a site on the other side of the A12 from the present village. Presumably
a new (or revised) Chelmsford Borough Local Plan will be devised.
One of the objections to the vast housing development at Boreham was its impact on
traffic levels on the already over-used and congested A12. In the same week that news of
the plan's withdrawal came through, we heard that Transport Secretary Alastair Darling
had earmarked £7 billion pounds for road "improvements" in the U.K...........£2 billion
pounds of which was to be spent in Essex, much of it on widening the A12 between
Brentwood and Chelmsford; that does not augur well for the future of the Essex countryside.
I was driving through the countryside north of Pleshey in July and noted the roadside
verges are still very floristically rich with species such as Centaurea nigra, Knautia
arvensis, Agrimonia eupatona and Pimpinella saxifraga in contrast to the heavily
cultivated adjacent fields. I also found some slightly larger fragments of old grassland -
at the crossroads near Rolphes (Rolfes) Farm (TL 647157). Here I found all the above
species, plus Odontites verna. Galium mollugo and Ononis repens, plus many others. It
was very pleasant to stand in old grassland on a quiet road listening to the chirrup of
dozens of Meadow Grasshoppers, the song of the Yellow-hammer from a nearby
hedgerow, the twittering of Swallow's and to watch the bumble bees - Bombus lapidarius
- tumble over the Centaurea nigra flowers. I later came across Betony at Onslow Green
(a tiny Essex Wildlife Trust reserve) near Ford End and Clinopodium vulgare (with
Galium verum, Pimpinella saxifraga and Agrimonia eupatoria) on a roadside bank
near Howe Street (TL 693144). At Howe Street I noticed verges on both sides of the
road had been disturbed by recent trench excavation, one now back-tilled, presumably
for a cable, the other still open with the spoil dumped on one side. This may be permanent,
possibly as a deterrent to 'travellers' who I would guess had occupied the site (big
enough for a couple of trucks and a caravan or two) and would not be welcome as
returning visitors. If this is the case, it will make the verge impossible to manage (you
can't get heavy mowing machinery on the other side of the trench). We will eventually
lose any floristic interest there was in this verge. I have noticed this all over Essex now,
where lay-bys and big verges are closed by heaps of earth. I assume to prevent 'travellers'
from occupying the ground and also to prevent car dumping and the ever-increasing
levels of 'fly-tipping' that Essex has had to endure since the increase in landfill tax. At
Boreham, on the A12 interchange, a huge barrier was created from an imported soil
rubble mix. There are now dozens of Hollyhocks growing here, plus innumerable weed
species. It looks unsightly and was actually dumped on a colony of Bee Orchids. Whilst
I know these arc reasonably common in Essex, it does not excuse thoughtless, selfishness
on the one hand being compounded by equally thoughtless actions on the other hand.
Essex Field Club Newsletter No. 42, September 2003 1