The 2019 Good Parks for London report makes sobering reading for Bexley, which has been ranked 29th of the 33 Boroughs and City of London after scores were added up across ten different criteria. One of these was ‘Supporting Nature’, in which Bexley was placed in the third points range category of the four used, the fourth being no data/zero.
Bexley scored more poorly than a lot of more urbanised Boroughs on supporting nature in its parks and open spaces.
The poor ‘Supporting Nature’ performance will not come as a surprise to those who follow ‘Bexley Wildlife’, given that this was assessed by having an up to date Biodiversity Action Plan (BAP) in place, together with the percentage of parks that have management plans which include BAP objectives and the percentage of Sites of Importance for Nature Conservation in positive conservation management. As ‘BW’ has highlighted before, Bexley Council’s BAP expired in 2015, and it has made no attempt since to sit down or otherwise communicate with those outside of the Council responsible for delivering aspects of it about evaluating progress and updating the document. ‘BW’ has also published the results of a Bexley Natural Environment Forum freedom of information request made a few years ago which revealed that 80% of SINCS wholly or jointly owned by the Council had no management plan. The few that did were almost all several years out of date. That situation has not changed. Clearly you cannot build BAP objectives into non-existent management plans.
The other considerations taken into account were Public satisfaction, Awards for quality (e.g. Green Flags), Collaboration, Events, Health, fitness and well-being, Community involvement, Skills development, Sustainability and Strategic planning. In all but Collaboration, and in Events, where Bexley was put in the top points category, the Borough again managed to secure only the lowest score category above zero.
According to the report, which shows that the criticisms of Bexley’s biodiversity and habitat management planning and performance are well-founded, and not just the preserve of what the Council may prefer to dismiss as an awkward ‘vocal minority’ of residents, Good Parks for London is supported by all London Boroughs and several other partner organisations.
A pdf copy of the full report is provided below:
I think Bexley is neglecting its heathland . Dartford Heath is becoming overgrown with trees & scrub . Smokers & kids used to start lots of fires , which cleared young trees & regenerated gorse & heather . This is no longer happening , plus Bexley is planting native trees everywhere , including Danson Park , when it already has lots of woods in the borough. Instead woods need to be managed , with regular felling to create clearing & replanting , to make patchwork habitats , or coppice-&-standard . The East Wickham Open Space used to be heath with skylarks when I was a child . Now it is another wooded area , although volunteers have made ponds . Rockcliffe Gardens ponds were full of newts , frogs & toads when I was a child in the 1960’s , all gone when I went last year .