Wanstead Park needs a cash injection and some tender loving care

The scene in Wanstead Park at this time of year offers a panorama of colours, with the yellows and coppers blending against the greens and reds, amid a constantly changing natural scene.

It is a breath taking experience, for those of us lucky enough to be observing the different seasons of change throughout the year. The park is a real gift to people living in this area – a green lung as it were.

However, it has been alarming over recent years to see a deterioration in the state of the park. The most visible sign of the decline has been the emptying of water from the lakes.

The park has a unique water system, with the five lakes effectively regulating water flows between them.

Well that is how it worked for hundreds of years but recently the system has broken down. I am not sure if there is any flow from Shoulder of Mutton to Heronry. The Heronry lake dried out earlier in the year, it having been supplied over recent years by a nearby pumping system that saw water coming from a bore hole. The pump was broken, so the flow stopped. Thankfully, this has now been fixed, so the Heronry has refilled.

The Perch pond had a pennywort infestation, which the City of London Corporation brought in contractors to treat. Whilst this was happening the water supply from Perch to Ornamental was cut off. The result is that the magnificent Ornamental lake has been drying out for the past couple of years. Thankfully, the flow from Perch to Ornamental has now been restored, with the latter lake slowly refilling.

These sticking plaster solutions though have taken far too long to be enacted. The park was classified as at risk on the English Heritage register back in 2009, on the basis of the faulty waterways. What is required is for the centuries old system of water flows to be fixed, with maybe some extra reserves from bore holes and the Roding brought into the scenario as well.

The work that needs doing is premised on attaining a grant from the Heritage Lottery Fund. Over recent years the City of London Corporation has postponed even applying for this money, having presented it as a panacea for resolution of all the parks problems. Things though do seem to be slowly moving ahead but we need some urgency to resolve the issues of our beautiful park.

The Friends of Wanstead Park have been trying to move things along, their efforts together with Leyton and Wanstead Mp John Cryer saw a Save Wanstead Park summit held recently in Parliament. It was aimed at bringing all the stakeholders in the park together to agree a plan of action to save the park. There seems to have been some positive movement in a number of areas but we wait to see things really begin to transform in the park.

What is for sure is that the custodians of the park, the City of London Corporation could do better. One has only to visit other parks in the area, such as Valentines and Victoria, not to mention the recently opened Walthamstow Wetlands  to see what can be achieved with a bit of money and will power.

Wanstead Park does not need huge change, it is the wilderness nature of the park that makes it so attractive to so many. What it does need is a bit of Tender Loving Care, a recognition of what a wonderful natural resource we have in the park, something that the present generation has a responsibility to preserve to hand onto future generations.

published - Wanstead and Woodford Guardian - 30/11/2017
Ilford Recorder - 7/12/2017