CAMPAIGN TO SAVE THE INNER TIDAL THAMES SSSI AT RAINHAM MARSH
Due to changes in the planning application, further public consultation will commence on
7.8.98. 51% of the SSSI is under clear threat of development but Havering Councillors
are no longer unanimously supporting the plan. Given sufficient objections from
conservationists there is now a real possibility that the whole site can be saved and
properly managed. This is Greater London's largest SSSI and last viable grazing marsh.
In late 1997, after over 20 years failure to achieve a private development 'of regional or
national significance', LB Havering made a planning application to itself to build a retail/
industrial park on it's own 230 acres (19%) of the SSSI. The only justification of regional
significance is the totally speculative designation of 100 acres for a large factory. As the
applicant, the council would have had to finance the development itself but had no funds,
so English Partnerships (the government quango set up to expedite the regeneration of
'brownfield' areas) put up 16 million pounds as co-applicant but insisted on the
withdrawal of out-of-town retail and leisure units to avoid automatic ministerial call-in.
The legality of English Partnerships intervention on a greenfield site with a nature
conservation designation is being questioned. Following challenges, it has removed
references to Havering Riverside from it's web-site and refuses to meet national objectors
such as RSPB. In order to develop it's own land LB Havering is ignoring the fact that
vacant sites exist on the adjacent Ferry Lane industrial estate although it has a policy
designating it as a 'bad neighbour' site which needs regenerating.
A mitigation package to compensate for the loss of 230 acres of the SSSI has yet to be
approved by English Nature. Both EN and EA have made their objections to development
public. Many national and regional conservation bodies are also objecting. Acquisition
and enhancement of suitable land within an ecologically acceptable distance of the SSSI
within the Thames migration route is required, to sustain migrants and even more
critically, resident fauna and flora adapted to localised mid-estuarine conditions.
FORM monitoring confirms that despite lack of conservation-friendly management on
site, bird migrant numbers increase sharply when suitable conditions occur. Following a
season of rather haphazard cattle-grazing on Aveley marsh and some water management
work by FORM, hundreds of wildfowl and waders assembled last winter. Fencing to
control the grazing was delayed but migrant birds bred successfully. Water-level sensors
on the redundant MOD automatic pump have been raised slightly to reduce pumping into
the Thames, but with little beneficial effect. Efforts continue to get it switched off so that
a larger area can be improved.
Bunding of Rainham marsh to safeguard construction of the A13 relief road has stopped
mis-use and begun to repair damage due to off-road vehicles, fly-tipping, and official
neglect. Up to that point no management under section 28 of the WCA had been carried
out since designation in 1986. Fly-tipping has been reduced and the area cleaned up; tall
vegetation has regenerated over large worn areas, restoring conditions for Short-eared
Owl, Water Vole etc. Site mis-use continues on the silt lagoons, Wennington and Aveley
but as a voluntary agent of EN FORM is getting land owners more actively involved in
protection.
The Port of London Authority silt lagoons within the SSSI are zoned for development and
FORM is supporting the PLA case to retain and recycle them with conservation-friendly
management. The lagoons have not degenerated rapidly and it would not be prohibitively
expensive to keep them wet as claimed at a Public Inquiry.
Essex Field Club Newsletter No. 26, August 1998