Council’s plans for Warren Farm mean significant loss of open space and a threat to skylarks in Ealing
We are expressing serious concern about Ealing Council’s proposal to develop a sports facility on Warren Farm. The plans are due to be discussed by the council’s cabinet on 25th January. The council plans to designate five of Hanwell’s Meadows as Local Nature Reserve, as put forward in the Brent River & Canal Society’s vision to create and protect a Wildlife Corridor, but the council’s proposal only includes half of rewilded Warren Farm. Despite Warren Farm’s recorded rare species, the council plans to develop the rest of the site as a sports facility.
The map below is taken from Ealing Council’s cabinet report. Two of the three proposed development plans would take up more than half of Warren Farm’s current rewilded area.
Map showing one of the suggested sports developments on rewilded Warren Farm
This would lead to a significant loss of biodiversity and a reduction in publicly accessible green open space. This was acknowledged in Ealing Council’s own Local Plan which was published in November 2022. The Plan’s Site Selection Report acknowledges both the loss of green space, within an area of deficiency in access to parks, and the loss of priority habitat.
We are also warning that developing our rewilded wildflower meadow would leave Ealing’s only Skylark population with nowhere to breed. As the council’s own Biodiversity Action Plan points out, Warren Farm is the only place in the borough suitable for Skylarks to nest:
“Despite several other areas of seemingly suitable open grassland habitat within the borough of Ealing, Skylarks have failed to expand their range beyond Warren Farm. It is thought that this may be due to the likes of Horsenden West and Islip Manor Meadows having too much surrounding tree cover and hedgerows breaking up the expanses of open spaces Skylarks need to feel safe enough to breed.
Because Warren Farm appears to be the only site suitable for Skylarks to breed within the borough of Ealing, any future development or changes of use must take them into account.
It is vital to minimise disturbance to breeding birds as well as avoid or minimise the introduction of vertical structures that may force them to abandon the site due to increased opportunity for predators.”
A skylark on Warren Farm Nature Reserve. Photo credit; Richard Carter.
Katie Boyles, Trustee of the Brent River & Canal Society (BRCS) and Warren Farm Nature Reserve campaign organiser, sayes:
“While we welcome the council’s plan for a Local Nature Reserve in the Brent River Park, excluding half of Warren Farm is like removing the jewel from the crown. As the council itself acknowledges, nowhere else in the borough has the wide open space for skylarks to nest safely on the ground and the abundance of plant & insect species they need to feed their chicks. That’s why they don’t exist anywhere else in the borough. Our skylarks are a threatened species facing UK and local extinction. This proposal would certainly make them extinct in Ealing.
It is frankly speaking, environmentally reckless. Where is the accountability for the council to follow their own Biodiversity Action Plan? To adhere to their Public Consultation results in which the overwhelming majority of respondents want Warren Farm Nature Reserve preserved for it’s rare and precious wildlife? The site has had 14 years to rewild and yet sadly, despite our conversations with the council to date, the scientific facts of the matter and our community’s wishes are being at best watered down and at worst, ignored. Warren Farm Nature Reserve is at risk of becoming the biggest de-wilding project in West London. We strongly encourage Ealing Council to have an urgent rethink, there is still time to do the right thing.”
Campaigners also point out that developing sport facilities on Warren Farm would be at odds with Ealing Council’s own Climate and Ecological Strategy and would be counter-productive given the current Climate Emergency and the council’s biodiversity commitments.
BRCS Trustee and Warren Farm Nature Reserve campaign officer, Steven Toft comments:
“We deduced, from comments by the council leader and deputy leader in August last year, that the proposal would look something like this and now our fears have been confirmed.
Warren Farm’s sheer size and interconnectedness are key to its ecological value, so taking a chunk out of it destroys much of the value of the rest. It will mean a significant loss of biodiversity for Ealing. Developing half of Warren Farm will do more ecological damage than putting a development anywhere else in the borough.
The council talks about its biodiversity and re-wilding ambitions. Starting the new Local Plan with biodiversity loss and de-wilding seems an odd way of going about it.”
Warren Farm Nature Reserve, rewilded wildflower meadow habitat
BRCS Trustee and former Ealing Council Senior Ranger Phil Belman remarks:
“In 2020, the government committed to protecting 30% of land for nature by 2030. Last November, the Labour Party criticised the government for ‘a monumental dereliction of duty’over its lack of progress. Yet here in Ealing, our Labour council is planning to destroybiodiversity on its own land. Skylarks need space to nest. Taking half of Warren Farm won’t halve the number of Skylarks breeding, it will eliminate them completely.”
The Brent River & Canal Society and Warren Farm Nature Reserve group will continue to campaign for Local Nature Reserve designation for the entire site and surrounding meadows. We are urging our supporters to please use the Local Plan consultation process to oppose the development of a sports facility on Warren Farm on the following grounds:
Significant loss of biodiversity (as acknowledged in the Local Plan’s Site Selection Report)
Loss of publicly accessible green space (as acknowledged in the Local Plan’s Site Selection Report)
Loss of habitats for endangered species
Loss of the borough’s only breeding Skylarks (as acknowledged in the council’s Biodiversity Action Plan
The development would be at odds with Ealing Council’s own Climate and Ecological Strategyand would be counter-productive given the current Climate Emergency and the council’s biodiversity commitments.
Residents have until 8th February 2023 to make comments on the Local Plan. You can respond by email at localplan@ealing.gov.uk.
The Warren Farm Nature Reserve petition also remains open and is approaching 14,000 signatures.
Thank you for caring about wildlife on your doorstep here at #WarrenFarmNR!