Adastra readers see below.
Henfield Parish Council did no EIA.
They made no approach to the Sussex Wildlife Trust, despite them being just
down the road.
Natural England were, as usual, toothless,
Dave Bangs
-----------------------------------------------------------
----Original message----
>From : henfiel...@btconnect.com
Date : 16/05/2017 - 12:55 (GMTST)
To : bangs...@btinternet.com
Cc : richardkendall...@icloud.com, garypetti...@hotmail.com,
mikepmor...@btinternet.com, vassossianto...@gmail.com,
malcolmeastwood...@btinternet.com, off...@henfield.gov.uk
Subject : Henfield Common football pitch project: damage to archaic grassland
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Dear Mr Bangs,
Further to your earlier email, I can confirm that there was no Environmental
Impact Assessment carried out on the Henfield Memorial Field pitches.
For your information Henfield Parish Council did contact ‘Natural England,’
‘Historic England’ and ‘The Open Spaces Society,’ amongst others, to inform
them of the proposals to carry out the work. Only The Open Spaces Society
responded and gave no objections to the work being carried out.
I can confirm that the contract to carry out the renovation work has already
been agreed between Henfield Parish Council and the contractor, and it is
anticipated that the work will commence in the next couple of weeks, subject to
weather conditions being favourable.
Kind regards,
Kevin Wright
Clerk – Henfield Parish Council
From: D BANGS [mailto:bangs...@btinternet.com]
Sent: Monday, 15 May, 2017 8:17 PM
To: off...@henfield.gov.uk
Subject: Henfield Common football pitch project: damage to archaic grassland
From: David Bangs
Field naturalist and author
bangs...@btinternet.com
T: 01273 620 815
15/05/17
To: Mr Kevin Wright, Henfield Parish Clerk
Dear Mr Wright
Damage to archaic species-rich grassland at Henfield Common
Thank you for speaking to me on the phone today.
I re-visited the Common after our phone chat and was appalled.
The football pitch project area sprayed by herbicide/gramicide takes in well
over half of the area in which Chamomile, Chamaemelum nobile, is present. This
is a rare and steeply declining species and the number of Sussex sites where it
naturally occurs is now very small.
Its presence in quantity is one of the core nature conservation features of the
Common.
The area sprayed displays (in my short visit today) a number of high nature
value scarce plants, including Chamomile, Heath Spotted Orchis and Southern
Marsh Orchis, Adder’s Tongue Fern, Marsh Pennywort, Common Yellow Sedge, Oval
Sedge, Hairy Sedge, Devil’s Bit, Tormentil, and Heath Speedwell.
In a single brief visit to the pitch project area in 2013 I recorded six
significant old meadow fungi species: two Fairy Clubs, a Pinkgill and three
Waxcap fungi. I suspect a properly conducted survey for this group would record
many more.
As I said to you, Henfield Common is largely an SNCI (Site of Nature
Conservation Interest). The area of the cricket pitch and the old ball pitches
(which are the subject of HPC’s project) was anomalously excluded from the
designated SNCI only because the appropriate surveys there had not then been
carried out. Subsequently, a survey of the cricket pitch for old meadow fungi
was conducted (about 15 years ago) and the cricket pitch proved to be the
richest site for old meadow fungi on the Common and one of regional value in
nature conservation terms for this assemblage.
Can you please tell me whether any Environmental Impact Assessment was made of
the football pitch project? If it was, would you be so kind as to forward it to
me?
I understand that drainage works are to undertaken (and ditch ‘cleaning’ has
recently taken place). Given that the core nature conservation feature of the
Common is its archaic acid marsh vegetation, further drainage could be very
detrimental.
Furthermore, the highly acidic Folkestone Beds surface geology of the Common is
what gives it its individual character. Semi-natural ‘moor’ vegetation on the
local Wealden Folkestone Beds is now very rare, and the loss of this surface
geology to new imported soils will thus damage the character and sense of place
of the whole Common.
I ask you, please, to secure the cessation of all further activity pertinent to
the football pitch project until these issues of nature conservation have been
addressed. This is a matter of urgency,
With best wishes
Dave Bangs
Virus-free. www.avg.com
