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A developer wants to destroy one of the last remaining riverside meadows beside the Roding in London. 11 acres of rapidly rewilding meadow, a haven for nature in an urban area, where kingfishers nest, kestrels & bats take flight & all manner of insects, butterflies & amphibians live, is proposed to be bulldozed to create a crazy golf course. This despite the fact that there are already *two* existing golf courses within a few hundred metres of this site! The meadows used to be a publicly accessible playing field, but the person behind the development appears to have locked it up & allowed rubbish & flytipping to proliferate to make this site look ugly & unused; & thereby justify its destruction. I have been helping local residents to organise a campaign to ‘Save the Roding Meadows’ & they’ve done so much in a short space of time. Last weekend, they showed the power of community & organised a work day to do the landowners job for them and clean up the large amount of rubbish in the meadows. You can help them in their efforts by taking a moment to share this post and sign and share their petition: change.org/p/wanstead-park-w… If you live anywhere locally (in LB Redbridge or along the Roding) any additional objections to the local authority would be really helpful. The application is below, & you can use this link to log objections via the portal. The deadline is this Friday (4th October): planning.redbridge.gov.uk/re… Residents have compiled an example letter setting out the key objections at this link. Feel free to use, but personalised letters are preferable if at all possible: docs.google.com/document/d/1… Fingers crossed that the depth of care felt by local people for nature can save this irreplaceable meadow from destruction.

So, I find myself 30ft in the air up a tree in Wellingborough- surrounded by police, security & tree surgeons- trying to prevent an illegal tree felling. How did I end up here? Here’s an outrageous story of nature destruction & collusion between authorities & private developer 🧵