Thames Road Wetland Site Manager Chris Rose, and Thames21 Cray Project Officer Michael Heath, were at Sutcliffe Park in Greenwich last Friday (17th October) looking at the ‘Sustainable Urban Drainage’ solution there, created by restoring part of the River Quaggy by diverting some of the water out of an enclosed culvert that dog-legs around the park margin, and sending it back through the middle of the park itself.
Chris Rose (left) and Michael Heath (centre), with QWAG member Dave, looking at the point where the Quaggy rejoins the culvert. Thames21 Ravensbourne Catchment Co-ordinator Lawrence Collins is on the platform in the background. (Photo: Pamela Zollicoffer)
The reason for the visit was that Chris is giving a talk on TRW to the Quaggy Waterways Action Group on November 19th, and they are interested in comparing and contrasting this Bexley site with what they have in Sutcliffe Park.
Sutcliffe Park doing its job holding back and absorbing flood overflow water in January 2014. (Photo: Pamela Zollicoffer)
The one obvious flaw in the design is that some of the adjoining pathway, and associated benches, are too low down in relation to the river channel and were standing under and in water at the time of the visit.
From a wildlife point of view, the site has developed well, but in terms of maintaining a wetland flora, and public amenity in respect of views of the river, it would benefit from copping and pollarding some of the Willows every winter. These have colonised in significant numbers and are well on the way to creating wet woodland, a valuable habitat in its own right, and parts could be left to go that way, but if views and access to the water became too shut off, there may be a risk that public support for this scheme and others like it might dwindle.
