After a passionate protest - we are ‘cautiously optimistic’ on Ealing Council’s Warren Farm vote

We want to start this blog by saying a massive THANK YOU to everyone who came out and joined us for our family-friendly protest on Tuesday 21st February. Outside the meeting we had an incredible lively and good-natured protest. From your amazing wildlife-inspired banners ‘You Can Never Have Too Many Owls’ (fact!), to the amazing papier-mâché falcon-headed hat man, to see our coloured-in printable Skylark banners and Barn Owl masks being worn by families, the lady dressed as a Barn Owl with a cape for wings, our large Skylark prop ‘Skylark Sid’ overlooking the crowd as we chanted and sung together - everyone’s love for #WarrenFarmNR was buzzing!

We listened to speeches from our group’s campaign activists, conservationist and wildlife writer Kabir Kaul, London Natural History Society botanist Dr Mark A Spencer, conservationist and Ealing Wildlife Group founder Dr Sean McCormack. From the two council opposition party leaders, Gary Malcolm, for the Liberal Democrats, and Julian Gallant, for the Conservatives. Two members of the London Assembly also spoke, Hina Bokhari, for the Liberal Democrats, and Green Party Deputy Leader Zack Polanski. Chants, songs and banners made the opinion of our amazingly passionate protesters very clear: we want the whole of Warren Farm to be declared a Local Nature Reserve.

It was a protest that is going to be remembered for a long time to come. But were our voices heard by councillors on the inside?

In part, yes. We are ‘cautiously optimistic’ after the meeting of Ealing Council’s Overview and Scrutiny Committee (OSC). Although the OSC voted to support the council leadership’s proposal to build a sports facility on Warren Farm, an acid grassland site that has had 14 years to rewild and is now home to rare species, it did so with the two important caveats:

A habitat survey of Warren Farm and the adjacent Imperial College site should be carried out before any final decision is made
The discussions with the adjacent Imperial College site should be revisited, which could open the way for a wider range of options for the mix of sport and nature on the two sites that sees Warren Farm’s wildlife protected

The OSC was called by the Leader of the Opposition, Councillor Gary Malcolm. The Committee, made up of backbench councillors, heard evidence from Ealing Council’s Deputy Leader, Deirdre Costigan, and from our wildlife experts, London Natural History Society botanist, Dr Mark A Spencer and conservationist and founder of the Ealing Wildlife Group, Dr Sean McCormack.

During the meeting, Dr Spencer explained that several of Warren Farm's plant species are at risk of extinction nationally. He produced a map showing the London-wide distribution of threatened plant species - the darker the dot, the greater the number of threatened species at that location. Warren Farm (the dark dot on the left of the map - see below) is therefore a highly important site for these plants.

*Map showing the London-wide distribution of threatened plant species. Compiled using data maintained by the Botanical Society of Britain and Ireland. Copyright BSBI, used with permission.*

After nearly two hours of discussion and debate, the councillors voted to continue with the council cabinet’s plan, but subject to the above recommendations.

Katie Boyles, Brent River & Canal Society (BRCS) Trustee and Warren Farm Nature Reserve campaign organiser said after the meeting:

“Of course we are disappointed that the councillors did not reject the development proposal outright, knowing the irreversible environmental damage development would cause to Warren Farm Nature Reserve, but the fact that they called for a full habitat survey of both sites is a move in the right direction. The discussion at the meeting showed that at least some of the councillors have taken on board the evidence offered by our expert witnesses and were keen to find out more. The strength of feeling from our family-friendly demonstration outside no doubt helped to focus their minds too.

Given less time to speak than councillor Deidre Costigan in the meeting, Dr Sean McCormack and Dr Mark A Spencer were both still able to make it very clear to councillors just how incredibly important a site Warren Farm is today for wildlife facing extinction on both a local and national scale. Sean’s speech was cut-off and he was not given as much time or the opportunity to finish. (We have been made aware of footage from the live-streamed meeting on social media that appears to show Deputy Leader Deidre Costigan intentionally pulling the lead out from her microphone at the point Sean’s mic cuts out, followed by a member of staff reconnecting it. Sean has written a blog post on his thoughts about this and with a transcript of his full speech which you can read here. We will be raising this under Ealing Council’s the Ealing Code of Conduct for Members.)

This is not over yet. Not by a long way. The council leadership will find it difficult to refuse the recommendation of a thorough habitat review and, at that point, we can bring our experts and our extensive evidence to the table in a manner where it will now have to be acknowledged. We are confident that we can assure the council not to de-wild Warren Farm Nature Reserve, which, as our experts showed during the meeting, is one of London’s greatest ecological assets.

National and London-wide policy is calling for Biodiversity Net Gain while Ealing Council’s development plan would mean Biodiversity Net Loss. This is what any decent, expert-led independent habitat survey will show. We will now be recommending that Ealing Council carry out the approved two recommendations, including habitat surveys and revisiting the Imperial College deal, in a thorough and transparent manner with our involvement and input from our experts.

Let’s have Warren Farm Nature Reserve set a precedent of how councils should be caring for our biodiversity and green spaces, for the benefits they bring to the community and wildlife on our doorstep. There is the funding and interest to run our site as an official Local Nature Reserve, a space where children can learn about the climate and how they, like every one of us, are custodians of the environment. Let’s have a compact eco-hub - an educational wildlife centre run with the London Wildlife Trust for our connected meadow habitats in Ealing! It’s time to stop putting nature as a tick-box exercise at the end of a planning application and time we start to rethink our approach to wildlife in a way that matters.

We would like to thank the councillors for their considered debate, our experts for making the scientific case for protecting our wildlife, the notable wildlife organisations and individuals for their support, the 19,000 people who have signed our petition that is growing every day and to everyone who joined us on a cold winter evening to protest! Together we are giving our wildlife a voice they would not otherwise have and our campaign to safeguard Warren Farm Nature Reserve in its entirety continues.”

And we continue with the backing from a number of high-profile experts, wildlife organisations and charities who have also criticised Ealing Council’s decision and are supporting our Warren Farm Nature Reserve campaign, including: wildlife writer and conservationist Kabir Kaul; wildlife TV presenter Chris Packham; President of The Wildlife Trusts Liz Bonnin; London RSPB chief Andrew Peel; London Wildlife Trust Policy Director Matthew Frith; President of the RSPB and Vice President of the Wildlife Trusts Dr Amir Khan; zoologist conservationist and wildlife TV presenter Megan McCubbin; TV and Radio presenter naturalist and ornithologist Iolo Williams; TV presenter and founder of Ealing Wildlife Group Dr Sean McCormack; and Director of Rewilding Britain Alastair Driver among many others.

A huge thank you again for your continued support, for joining us on the protest and for making it so memorable, fun and impassioned, for signing and sharing our petition, for writing to councillors and so much more! We’re on this Warren Farm Nature Reserve journey together, let’s make it happen!

• Sign the petition here.

• Write to your local councillors urging them not to support the de-wilding plan. Enter your postcode here and it will bring up a list of your councillors with links to their email addresses.

www.WarrenFarmNatureReserve.co.uk

Twitter & Instagram: @WarrenFarmNR

Facebook Group: Warren Farm Nature Reserve