Month: November 2019

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City to Sea

 

The Hoo Peninsula is part of and the central focus of the Wider North Kent Marshes which stretch  from Dartford in the west to Whitstable in the east.  This area is internationally renowned and protected for its wetlands and nationally protected by sites of special Scientific interests. However the Development in Hoo and its out lying villages is not the only threat this important and most precious place faces.

The new Lower Thames Crossing which will cut right across an area of wetlands near Higham and will inevitably increase the pressure on the need for new housing and business to support the ever increasing population.


The more I learn the more I feel I need to stand up for this special an unique place.

So what do we mean when we say a new National Park? Clearly we do not live in an area you would normally associate with the status of “National Park” we are not in the “Lake District” or “The New Forest” why would we ever consider making the Hoo peninsula a National Park?

Consider for a moment, London, which has just become the first “National Park City,
“London will be: a city which is greener in the long-term than it is today and where people and nature are better connected. a city which protects the core network of parks and green spaces and where buildings and public spaces aren’t defined only by stone, brick, concrete, glass and steel”.

The Hoo peninsula and its Greater North Kent Marshes is in a unique position between the City and Sea, it could and should be a landscape asset maintained as a legacy for all our futures a place of unique biodiversity sensitively accessible to everyone.

Planned to achieve an environmental balance to the city and able contribute to the carbon neutralisation of the growing urban sprawl an area to create wealth and employment in tourism and leisure and local produce.

Rural regeneration of a landscape designed to showcase this unique area between the Thames and Medway estuaries featuring it’s raw beauty
as Dickens described a landscape rich in history.

Massive schemes for road bridges, unco ntrollable  and unsustainable development, fill me with fear and dread that we are on the cusp of losing what we have forever.
Join me in the fight for the future. 

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Why a national park

In 1861 Charles Dickens ‘ famous novel Great Expectations was published and I’m sure many of you will recollect his famous words written about our marshes that are as relevant now as they were nearly 160 years ago .

“Ours was the marsh country, down by the river, within, as the rivers wound, twenty miles of the sea.  My first most vivid and broad impression of the identity of things seems to me to have been gained on a memorable raw afternoon towards evening. At such a time I found out for certain that this bleak place overgrown with nettles was the churchyard………. and that the flat dark wilderness beyond the churchyard, intersected with dikes and mounds and gates, with scattered cattle feeding on it, was the marshes; and that the low leaden line beyond was the river; and that the distant savage lair from which the wind was rushing was the sea…..

Dickens was describing a scene unchanged to this day. With your help, future generations will be able to make the same comparisons.

The idea of making the Hoo Peninsula a National Park is not a new one. Others before us have realised how important this unassuming piece of real estate is to our Natural and Cultural Heritage.

Most would never see it in the same light as the picture postcard destinations such as the Lake District or the New Forest.

But,

The Hoo Peninsula is, in my opinion, the second most important wildlife site in England, internationally designated and protected.

The Hoo Peninsula is home to the Thames and Medway Estuary Marshes covering an area of 38 sq miles from Gravesend rounding the Isle of Grain to Rochester. It is the central most important and fundamental feature of the greater North Kent Marshes which stretches from Dartford all the way to Whitstable.

The Hoo Peninsula is the custodian of a Ramsar, Sites of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) and Special Protected Areas (SPA). They include coastal grazing marsh, intertidal mudflats, salt marsh and fresh water lagoons. At the end of the escarpment of the North Downs lies Northwood Hill, a National Nature Reserve, overlooking the marsh to the north.

Picture if you will the dikes fanning out across marsh to the estuary beyond channelling the gently ebbing and flowing tide. Look a little closer and see the myriad of wildlife feeding on the richly fertile mudflat with its high content of organic material ideal for the filter feeding scavenger Invertebrates and of course flocks of wintering wildfowl, phenomenal and spectacular in numbers.

In the foreground the vast expanse of lowland wet grassland lies in front of the sea wall maintaining a bio diverse food source when the salt marsh is covered by the tide.  True Dickens Country!

Unlocking the potential of the Hoo Peninsula to development will herald the beginning of the end for this national treasure for ever and the unstoppable march of the urban fringe.

Please join with me and help make the Hoo Peninsula a National Park.

Help Protect our Natural and Cultural Heritage.

Help to make it a place where people and nature are better connected.

A place that continues to be rich in wildlife.

A place where we, our children and our grandchildren, can connect with nature and benefit from exploring, playing and learning.

We are among the most Nature depleted nations in the world our government statisticians tell us that :-

We have lost 97% of our wildflower meadows since 1930.

We have ever more specie of birds in decline.

Insects and invertebrates are struggling.

A third of our British bees are in decline.

 WE MUST START NOW to make a change by embracing the idea of a National Park for the Hoo Peninsula, perhaps even encompassing the whole of the North Kent  Marshes. Making the whole area as large as the North Norfolk Coast.

We have the landscape, the raw beauty, the geology, the geography, the biodiversity, the history, the archaeology and the rare species of plants and animals.

What we now need is the will to start to plan and to work together with a real ambition to achieve a healthier, happier future and ensure our wonderful countryside is greener, more beautiful and PROTECTED FOR THE WHOLE NATION.

Please visit my website and pledge your support for the Hoo Peninsula National Park.

Www.ronsands.co.uk/whats-the-latest