UPDATE: Barn Hill gets new slab paving rather than asphalt - Brent Council explains

 

Barn Hill today

Wembley Matters has been covering the so-called 'pavement wars' for sometime with various community groups opposing Brent Council's replacement of paving stones by asphalt on aesthetic and environmental grounds, while others feel asphalt presents less of a tripping hazard.

Residents have been puzzled over the policy of replacing paving with asphalt as it does not seem to be applied uniformly across the borough.  Indeed the redesign of Wembley High Road includes some quite expensive and painstaking paving work.

 

 

 Old paving discarded

 

Today I saw 'three men and a wheel barrow' team installing new paving along the length of Barn Hill. Is it the steep gradient that makes paving slabs the preferred option, conservation area status, or something else?

Brent Council responded with an explanation:

Barn Hill is in a conservation area and was one of the roads we changed to reactive repairs only rather than a full re-lay. 

Through reactive works we have only replaced investigation level defects like for like i.e. paving slabs. Not all cracked slabs have been replaced if they do not meet criteria. Also, we have not reconstructed the vehicle crossings or junctions with blocks or provided resin for the tree pits, as would have been done through planned footway maintenance.

In other words, basic repairs only.

As it happens Cllr Kansagra asked about the paving policy at the recent Resources and Public Realm Scrutiny;

Vigil for Bibaa Henry amd Nicole Smallman, Barn Hill pond, Tuesday August 3rd 7pm

 

Frolicking frogs on Barn Hill signal the arrival of Spring

 

 

I was so glad that I ignored the wind and the rain and popped up Barn Hill this morning. I was rewarded with a mesmerising view of spawning in progress  on Barn Hill pond.  The pond was quite low last year but filled up over winter and there was more spawn than I have seen for a very long time.

Conservative petitioners lose Barnhill By-Election court case and will have to pay £68,000 costs

 

The result declared on January 24th 2020

The Conservative candidates in the Barnhill by-election case today lost their case against Carolyn Downs, Brent Council Returning Officer in a Queens Bench hearing at the Royal Courts of Justice.

The recount ordered as a result of the petition by losing candidates Stefan Voloseniuc and Kanta Mistry revealed only a handful of votes difference in the by-election declaration which had given the Labour candidates Gaynor Lloyd and Mansoor Akram victory. The Conservative allegation that a 100 vote bundle had been placed in the wrong bundle was therefore unfounded.

The Court also found that Carolyn Downs' refusal of a recount in the early hours of January 24th 2020 had been reasonable and vindicated by the Court recount. Mr Justice Holgate said that the petitioners had not only requested a recount but their intention was clearly to unseat the Labour candidates. 

Mr Justice Holgate said that after the Court recount (the result of which had not been publicised) the petitioners had taken no action for 4 months which had caused Downs to seek a special case.

The by-election had been declared correctly and this was not now in dispute between the parties concerned.

On the matter of the missing seal on a bag of votes, Brent Council had been open about the matter and informed the parties immediately and the explanation that the cause was the poor quality of the seals at the time accepted.

The petitioners were ordered to pay costs of £30,000 to Carolyn Downs as Returning Officer  and a total of £38,000 legals costs to Cllr Lloyd and Cllr Akram.

When there was some delay and prevarication over the costs negotiations Mr Justice Holgate said that this should have been decided between parties before the hearing. The difference between the parties was small and a detailed assessment would add disproportionately to the costs. Clearly irritated, he said that this was a very, very. very small issue and urged those involved to get it into perspective - he had a very large planning case to decide.

Ironically, Stefan Voloseniuc had been a member of the Labour Party in Barnhill ward shortly before he switched parties to the Conservatives. Maybe not a good move.

The Wembley Park Story – Part 1

Philip Grant, of Wembley History Society, begins a new weekly series.

Long before Wembley Park, there was Wembley. Wemba lea (Wemba’s clearing) was first recorded in a document in AD825. My fellow local historian, Len Snow, enjoyed saying that football fans, with their chants when going to the Stadium, were singing its correct name.

The clearing is thought to have been just north of the Harrow Road (in the Triangle / Wembley Hill Road area). But who was Wemba? Probably one of the many immigrants, known as Saxons, who crossed the North Sea in the 7^th or 8^th century. Although some were invaders, most came with their families to start a new life as farmers in southern England. Wemba’s lea was in Middlesex (the land of the middle Saxons), and in 825 was part of around 12,000 acres in Harrow given by King Beornwulf of Mercia to Wulfred, Archbishop of Canterbury. This was to make up for land that had been stolen from him by the previous King!

 

1. A Saxon farmer, and extract from a map depicting this area in Saxon times. (Images from the internet)

As Wembley was just a tiny settlement then, within the much larger Parish of Harrow, there is little in the way of records about it for the next few centuries. By the 1100s, there was a slightly larger number of people living nearby in Tokyngton (the farm of Tocca’s sons), and it had a chapel. The parish church was at Harrow-on-the-Hill, so Wembley’s farmers were saved the longer walk to Sunday services.

In 1247, the two areas were brought together as ‘the manor of Wymbley’. The “Lord” of the Manor was actually a woman, the Prioress of Kilburn. Her Priory would have received rents from tenants, as well as food, from the land it held in Wembley and Tokyngton. Although it changed over time to Oakington, the original name was revived when a new Church of England parish was set up in 1925. I am indebted to its first vicar, Rev. H.W.R. Elsley, whose well-researched book, “Wembley through the Ages”, provided details used in this article.

The manor system was very important in medieval times, and all tenants of land were meant to observe the laws, and make sure that their neighbours did the same. They had to attend regular Manor Courts - these are entries from its 14^th century records. In 1315: ‘Appointed John Godwyne taster for Wembele’ (his duty was to check the strength of beer). In 1321: ‘Alice Germayne, of Wembele, has blocked a watercourse, to her neighbours’ damage’ (she would be fined if she failed to put this right). In 1337: Alice le Carpenter, Ralph de Wembely and five others ‘in mercy for selling and brewing ale contrary to the assize’ (the taster had been busy!).

 

2. Making beer in Medieval times. (Image from the internet)

Over the next 200 years, the Page family emerged as one of the wealthiest in this part of Middlesex. They were farmers, but also rented out land to sub-tenants. After King Henry VIII made himself Head of the Church in England, he dissolved Kilburn Priory in 1536, and forced the Archbishop of Canterbury to hand over his large Harrow estates in 1545. Some of the land Henry seized was sold to tenants, such as John Page of Wembley.

In the 18^th century, the Page families of Wembley, Harrow and Uxendon (acquired from the Bellamys in the early 1600s) became united through marriage. The widowed Richard Page of Harrow married again, to the granddaughter of (another) John Page of Wembley. The Page’s main farm in Wembley since Tudor times had been on the Harrow Road, south of Wembley Hill. By the 1740s they had acquired a new slate-roofed brick house, “Wellers”, at nearby Wembley Green. John Rocque’s map shows it had a large orchard, as well as farm buildings.

 

3. Extract from John Rocque's 1744 map of London and Environs, with “Wellers” added. (Brent Archives)

Wembly Green then was still a small settlement, which climbed to the top of the hill. Another map, a century earlier, had shown a windmill on Wembley Hill. The “Barley Mow”, a medieval timber-framed house which had become an inn by 1722, is named there. It was reached up a footpath from a row of cottages that were Wembley’s High Street (not to be confused with Wembley High Road!). The High Street and path (to an “inn”) are still there today, just off of Wembley Hill Road, and are well worth a visit once the “lockdown” is over.

 

4. Some (modernised) homes in Wembley's High Street, August 2013.

Richard Page of Harrow’s first wife, Anne Herne, had a brother and a sister, but neither of them ever married. His second wife, Susanna, bore him five sons. The eldest of these, another Richard Page, decided in the 1780s that he would prefer to live at “Wellers”, rather than in his late father’s mansion at Sudbury Grove. 

He had already planned to convert the farmland around his Wembley home to a country estate when, in 1792, Mary Herne died. She had inherited her family’s fortune on her brother’s death, without a male heir, in 1776. In her will, she left the Herne estate to Richard Page, her late sister’s husband’s eldest son! Richard Page lost no time in hiring England’s leading landscape gardener for his project, Humphry Repton.

5. Humphry Repton's business card, engraved from his own drawing. (From a copy at Brent Archives)

You can see Repton at work in the picture above. He used his skill as an artist to produce watercolour drawings for potential clients, showing their estate then, and how it would look if his designs were carried out. He presented his pictures in a leather-bound “Red Book”. Many survive, but the one for Wembley is missing (if you find it, it would be very valuable!). Luckily, we do have some other evidence.

 

6. Extract from a letter Humphry Repton wrote on 6 May 1793. (From a copy at Brent Archives)

A letter Repton sent to a friend in May 1793 shows that work was underway at Wembley by then. He describes it as ‘a most beautiful spot near Harrow’, but to him it was not free from defects. On another occasion he wrote: ‘To the common observer the beauties of Wembly may appear to need no improvement, but it is the duty of my profession to discover how native charms may be heightened by the assistance of taste; and that even beauty itself may be rendered more beautiful, this place will furnish a striking example.’

 

7. Repton's before and after sketches of Wembley Park, as seen from Barn Hill. (From Brent Archives copy)

There is an image, showing the before and after views of his scheme, from the top of Barn Hill, in a book which Repton published in 1794, “Sketches and Hints on Landscape Gardening”. That book includes the following note: ‘There is at present no word by which we express that sort of territory adjacent to a country mansion, which being too large for a garden, too wild for pleasure ground, and too neat for a farm, is yet often denied the name of a park, because it is not fed by deer. I generally waive this distinction, and call the wood and lawns, near every house, a park, whether fed by deer, by sheep, or heavy cattle.’

And so, the estate was called a park, and its owner became known as Richard Page of Wembley Park. There are several “Parks” in Brent, but the only other one by Repton is Brondesbury Park, which he created for Lady Salusbury in the early 1790s. The term was used again by Victorian developers for upmarket estates like Kilburn Park and Stonebridge Park, while Queens Park has its own story.

In an earlier article on Fryent Country Park, I mentioned that the history of the Page family did not end well. That is where I will take up the Wembley Park story again, next weekend.

Philip Grant.

The Fryent Country Park Story - Part 6

The sixth and last in a series by local historian Philip Grant

 

The Fryent Country Park Story – Part 6

Over the past five weeks, we have wandered through 1,000 years of our open space’s history, up to 1980. Thank you for your company on this journey, and I hope you will enjoy the final instalment, which brings us up to date. If you missed Part 5, “click” here.

1. A Spring morning on Fryent Way, as you enter the Country Park.

As part of its plans to improve its open spaces (including the Welsh Harp) in the early 1980s, Brent Council appointed two Countryside Rangers. In 1984, Brent combined its Barn Hill and Fryent Way lands, under the name Fryent Country Park. That year volunteers, who began to help look after this open space in 1983, formed the Barn Hill Conservation Group (“BHCG”).

Among the first steps taken was the restoration of the existing ponds, and the creation of some new ones, to encourage frogs and other amphibians. The ancient hedges also needed attention, to bring the fields back to the way they had been on the Hovenden Map of 1597 (see Part 2). BHCG members collected seeds from existing trees and bushes on the Park in the autumn, growing new ones on an allotment to replant missing hedgerows.

2. BHCG’s 1988 illustrated map of the Country Park, with lists of species. (Photo of an old copy I still have!)

Group members also took part in nature surveys, to count the number of different species to be found there. Around 1990, the Park was declared a Local Nature Reserve. When BHCG members produced an illustrated map of Fryent Country Park in the late 1980s, it listed around 550 types of flora and fauna. The map included the old field names, and the rows of green dots marked new areas of woodland that were being planted at Beane Hill, in the south-east corner of the of the Park, growing ash timber for commercial sale.

Efforts to attract more public use of the Park were dealt a blow in August 1986, when Travellers occupied land beside Fryent Way. This was partly in protest against Brent Council’s failure to provide a permanent site for them to use. Towards the end of the year there were up to 400 Travellers living there, without a water supply or sanitation, and fly-tippers took advantage of their piles of rubbish to dump more. The Council took court action to evict them, but then allowed 30 families to occupy a “temporary site”, with portable toilets, near the Fryent Way car park, until a permanent site was built.

3. Traveller caravans at Fryent Way, December 1986. (Still from an RTE television news report)

The Travellers and their rubbish (tons of which had to be cleared away periodically) were a continuing source of complaint by local residents, even after the permanent “Book Centre” site in Neasden was completed in the summer of 1988. The last of the occupying caravans finally vacated the Country Park after further court action in 1990. Banks of earth were put in place along both sides of Fryent Way, to prevent vehicle access into the fields in future, and although these looked unsightly at first, they are now a grassy feature.

4. Hay meadow wildflowers and grasses, and a Gatekeeper butterfly. (Courtesy of Leslie Williams / BHCG)

An “organic” management plan is followed for the Park’s meadows, which have a rich mix of grasses and wildflowers, and are an important habitat for butterflies. Annual butterfly surveys have been carried out since 1986, to monitor the different types and their relative numbers, and several new species have established themselves. The grass is cut for hay, from July onwards, and where possible the Council markets the right to come and harvest the crop. In the photo below, from 2004, a farmer from Wiltshire was preparing to take the hay home, as winter feed for his organic herd of dairy cows, which provided milk to make Yeo Valley yogurt!

5. Hay baling in a field behind Valley Drive, 2004. (Photo by the late Ian Stokes, courtesy of BHCG

A popular corner of the Park has always been the old Bush Farm, reached along its drive from the corner of Slough Lane. Two fields were fenced off, as grazing for horses that are still kept in stables there, and BHCG has worked to restore the farm’s former orchard (shown on the 1597 map), which as well as old apple varieties has damsons, mulberries, cob nuts and hops. A wheelchair accessible path has also been created there, to allow disabled visitors to enjoy some of the fields and ponds.

6. Horses in a field at Bush Farm. (Photo by David Howard, posted on the Flickr website)

The Park is covered with a network of footpaths, and one of the tasks carried out by BHCG on their year-round Sunday morning projects is to keep these paths clear for walkers to enjoy. The photos below show volunteers working on a path near Uxendon Hill, which is part of the Capital Ring. This 72-mile long circular route, around the green spaces of outer London, was devised by the London Walking Forum and, in normal times, can be walked in easy stages. The leaflet for Stage 10, “South Kenton to Hendon”, describes Fryent Country Park as ‘one of the best surviving areas of traditional countryside in Middlesex’.

7. Before and after views from a Sunday morning footpath project. (Photos by John Parker / BHCG)

Another initiative to encourage visitors to enjoy the Park was Brent’s Countryside Day. From the 1990s, this annual show brought a range of country activities, information stands and fairground rides to the event field. Watching sheep dogs at work, or displays with birds of prey, brought crowds of many thousands. As well as seeing BHCG members demonstrating wood turning on a pole lathe, youngsters sometimes got the chance to have-a-go themselves. Unfortunately, funding for this event was one of the cuts the Council had to make after 2010.
 

8. A flyer for the 1999 Countryside Day, and using a pole lathe in 2010. (With thanks to John Parker and Rose Bennett / BHCG)

Click on the link below to read the rest of this article

Storm Gareth fells a few more of Brent's trees

Wellspring Crescent beside Wembley Asda car park

A second tree on Wellspring Crescent

Storm Gareth felled a number of street trees in Brent including the two above on Wellspring Crescent which are along the pedestrian avenue that links the Lycee (former Town Hall) steps to Chalkhill Park.  Both trees are comparatively young.

This is an ornamental cherry on Salmon Street, Kingsbury. It is the second to be lost on that street, another was knocked down by a lorry backing out of a building site for a house rebuild. Other cherries have been lost on the nearby Pilgrims Way and may have been reaching the end of their natural lives.

Trees on the east side of Fryent Country Park, which are mainly hedgerow trees, have survived better than I had expected but the one above did not escape.

A number of large mature trees have been blown down on Eldestrete, the footpath at the bottom of Barn Hill.

However, the tree below is a living example of the adage 'a creaking gate hangs the longest.' Hollowed out by woodpeckers, parakeets, woodlice and other insects it still stands in an exposed position on top of Barn Hill near the pond. A neighbouring tree in a similar condition came down a year or so ago.

If you have news of other trees in the borough please comment below.

Poignant end for the blasted oak of Barn Hill

I came across this rather sad sight on Barn Hill today and a couple stopped to talk about what used to be the 'Hollow Tree' or 'Blasted Oak' well known to locals and walkers.

The oak, hollowed out by a lightning stroke with a sooty interior where children could stand, has been hanging on to life for years, but must have been deemed unsafe. The couple's children had played in and around the tree as had many primary classes I take to the park in my work with Brent School Without Walls. The tree had a fairy story quality that immediately attracted children and stimulated many speculative questions and comments.

The sight of the felled remains of the tree was strangely moving, the end of a venerable oak that had been there for well over 100 years, and a marker of the passage of time and final, inevitable, decay.

Note: The oak was beside the footpath at the Beverly Gardens end of Barn Hill.  There is another on the other side of Fryent Country Park at Beane Hill.

One landmark tree lost in otherwise little damaged Fryent Country Park

 

Although the Barn Hill trees I mentioned in my previous post survived this morning's storm unscathed, there was a major casualty across Fryent Way on Gotsford Hill. Two hybrid Italian black poplars have long been a landmark on top of the hill, but alas only one remains.

The trees bent away from each other and were given the nickname 'the quarrelsome trees' or 'unfriendly trees' because they resembled children who'd had an argument and turned their backs on each other.

It was a strange sensation as walking across the fields I realised something was missing from the landscape. The fallen tree was like some great stricken animal, a sensation helped by its rough creviced bark that resembled an aged elephant's skin.

A passerby walking with his wife and daughter remarked, 'We'll have to call it the lonely tree in future.'

The breaking point

The fallen tree

The 'Quarrelsome trees' on the horizon last winter

The Lombardy sycamore avenue on Barn Hill was barely touched except for the loss of a few small branches and continues to rise above the oaks of Barn Hill.

Some oaks were damaged losing huge branches heavy with leaves and acorns, but I saw no uprooted oak trees.

The willows were buffered by the gales but only lost small branches. If gathered up and planted these will root themselves.

Some of the trees that seemed ripe to fall remain standing. This tree on Hell Lane/Eldestrete has been leaning at a dizzy angle for some time - and continues to do so.

Will tonight's storm change Barn Hill's landscape

We have grown used to weather forecasts becoming increasingly scaremongering but if the storm forecast for Sunday night/Monday morning is as severe as feared, and its trajectory hits London, we could see substantial damage to one of Brent's greatest assets.

Barn Hill in Wembley Park, the remains of  Humphry Repton's Wembley Park Estate planted for Richard Page in 1792, contains many fine trees.  It lost a fair number of trees in the storm of 1987.

This weekend many of the trees are still in full leaf which increases the 'sail effect' when high winds hit. Isolated trees are particularly vulnerable as the full impact of the wind hits them.

I went out this morning in the Autumn  sunshine to record several of the trees in case they become victims of the storm.

This pair are just about surviving at the summit of Barn Hill despite having been hollowed out by insects, woodpeckers and latterly, ring-necked parakeets. They may be saved by the lack of leaves and the fact that they have lost many of their branches already.

The avenue of Lombardy poplars which runs from close to the roundabout at Fryent Way to the pond on top of Barn Hill has looked vulnerable for some time. Planted in 1935, according to some accounts to celebrate the jubilee of King George V, they are out of keeping with the traditional English planing and so unpopular with some. However they are a local land mark, rising as they do above the other woodland, and form a crest that can be seen from miles away. Some have been lost already and others have many dead branches/

 

This 'lone Lombardy' was one of a pair on what local children called 'The Island'  on the lower slope of Barn Hill. Its companion fell in Spring 2012 and gave the children lots of climbing fun before it was eventually sawn up by parks' staff. It and another nearby on its own 'island' are exposed and still in full leaf and therefore vulnerable to high winds. They were already getting quite a battering this morning.

All this is of course part of a natural cycle and fallen trees provide habitats for insects and small mammals, and thus food for birds and predators.  They also provide space for new growth.

More student tower blocks for North End Road, Wembley

Residents of North End Road, and especially those in  Danes Court, will have a new towering neighbour if plans for Karma House are approved by Brent Planning Committee on August 21st.

The three storey office block will be replaced by a building of part 9, 14, 17 and 19 storeys comprising 450 private student rooms. The development is very close to the existing 17 storey Victoria Hall student block and the 20 storey mixed hotel/residential development on the former Shubette House site.

The site was subject to a previous planning application in which on the 28th July 2005 Brent's planning committee resolved to grant outline planning permission for the demolition of the existing Karma House  building and the erection of a building ranging in height for 8 to 17 storeyscomprising a 120-bedroom hotel on the 1st -  5th floors, 108 timeshare or apartment hotel lets on 6th - 15th floors (84 studios, 24 one-bedroom), a public viewing gallery and restaurant on the 16th floor, one basementlevel of 40 parking spaces and associated facilities. The s106 agreement was signed and outline permission formally granted on the 17th April 2008. The application reference was 05/0626.

The report notes that an application was made to extend the time frame for the earlier application in June and it was hoped to consider both the applications at the same time. However, 'as further information is required' this will now not be considered until September.

The report does not say why, in this case, the student block application was not considered until then, One local resident's consultation comment on the current plan said:

Any further proposed development via increased density should positively impact the lives of existing residents and empower them.The previous scheme (hotel,restaurant, viewing gallery) would invite and attract residents and the public and would be useful to them while another exclusive student development would not. These student developments only serve to make money for their developers at a complete loss of amenity to existing residents.

Some of the residents say that the construction of what in effect is a 'student village' close to their homes will change the nature of a quiet family residential area while others claim that the Victoria Hall development has resulted in  no tangible benefits for local people.

Officers recommending approval of the scheme note that the development, coming on top of the 2,600 plus student rooms  completed or in process, will nonetheless not breach the 20% limit the Council put on the student proportion of new residents. However, they insert the caveat that it may be breached in the short-term if this accommodation comes on stream before other developments are completed.

The report claims that the protected views of Wembley Stadium from Barn Hill will not be detrimentally affected by the development and say that 'natural surveillance'  makes 24 hour security on the block unnecessary.

Full report HERE

Annexation attempt on Barn Hill?

The new houses from Barn Hill open space

 Further information has come to my attention regarding the 'Battle of the Yellow Lines' .  Apparently the houses that front the newly built houses in Beverley Gardens are former police houses and were all bought up by the same man who then built two new houses on the former police car park at the back of the houses.

The road was used to access those car parks as well as the open space and that would be clear at the time of purchase and development. It begins to look like an attempted annexation of a corner of Barn Hill estate.

Meanwhile Cllr Michael Pavey has written to the Council on the issue:

I am writing to object to the addition of double yellow lines to the service road at the top of Uxendon Hill/Beverley Gardens.

I understand that one positive response has been received to this proposal. Against this the residents' association is implacably opposed. I have been contacted by a number of other residents who I have encouraged to make representations. Parking restrictions are a very contentious issue, particularly in the Barn Hill area. A single positive response is an insufficient mandate when the local residents' association is so opposed.

I understand that the service road predates the houses built at the top of it. On this basis the landowner would have been fully aware of the access issues when choosing to develop the site. I would be interested to see any evidence that the road is now more congested with visiting traffic than at the time of development.

I understand that the service road is intended to facilitate access to the Barn Hill Open Space. Adding double yellow lines would restrict this, compromising people's ability to ensure this beautiful area.

I have been contacted by a resident in another part of the Barn Hill estate who has been advised by your Department that the Council cannot consider additional double yellow lines projects at the current time due to budget constraints. If money is tight, double yellowing this service road should certainly not be a priority.

I strongly believe that the community is opposed to this scheme. I trust that if the consultation generates more critical than positive responses, the Council will reject the proposal?

Best wishes,
Michael.

Cllr. Michael Pavey
Labour Councillor for Barnhill, Brent Council

Crackdown on defiant dog walkers

The Barnhill Safer Neighbourhood team are making a crackdown on 'professional' dog walkers who defy Dog Control Orders, a priority for this quarter. The orders stipulate a limit of 6 dogs per person but individuals have been seen with up to 15 dogs. At a going rate of £10 per hour for each dog this is clearly a lucrative business.

Complaints have come from ordinary members of the public, who walk their own one or two companion animals.and  who fear that the 'professionals' defiance will lead to a general clampdown on dog walking in Fryent Country Park.

The issue has been raised on this blog LINK   a week ago and complaints have been made by Barn Hill Residents Association. Barnhill ward councillors Michael Pavey and Shafique Choudhary have backed calls for action.


Some dog walkers have tried to get around the restrictions by bringing friends along to walk with them and thereby doubling the number of dogs to 12.  I hope that in the review of the orders due to take place in November that they could be revised so that the number of dogs being walked together as one 'pack' should never exceed 6 - 4 would be even better,

Efficacy of dog walking limits need to be reviewed

Dog walkers on Barn Hill earlier this week

I spoke at the Brent Council Executive in November last year LINK on the proposed restrictions on the number of dogs one person could walk in Brent parks. The proposal was to restrict the numbers walked by 'professional dog walkers' who earn upwards of £10 per dog per walk, to six. I had witnessed one dog walker with 15 dogs.

I suggested that enforcement would be a problem with the number of wardens cuts and many of the walkers coming from outside Brent.  I was also concerned that they would bring along a friend and thus reduce the ratio to the prescribed limit.

At the same meeting Cllr Powney agreed to a suggestion by Cllr Gavin Sneddon that the dog control orders should be reviewed after 6 months.  This appears not to have been done yet.

Last week I came across the dog walkers above on Barn Hill in Fryent Country Park  (there is another dog out of the picture) and two women who appeared to be waiting for them to move on.  The  women told me that the previous day they had been jogging around the field and were pursued by a pack of dogs, they thought there more than in the above picture, and that the solitary dog walker with them was unable to call them off.  A confrontation ensued about her lack of control.  As a result the women were now fearful of jogging when large numbers of dogs are around and it had spoiled their enjoyment of the park. They did remark that the walkers in the above picture appeared to have their dogs under better control but they were not taking any chances.

I am concerned that if this situation continues the public will be put off using the park and, in the worst case, there could be a serious incident. One dog walker who contacted me by e-mail to berate  Brent Council for introducing the ban quite unselfconsciously referred to 'my pack' of dogs. We really shouldn't be in the position of having packs of out of control dogs roaming in one of our Green Flag parks.

A review of the effectiveness of this policy is urgently needed.

Drought impacts on Brent's country park

In the West End last night the pavement cafes were crowded with people enjoying the balmy evening - t-shirts and sleeveless dresses abounded.  However, my companion voiced an unease that is becoming more common as the unseasonal weather continues: 'This is lovely but it's not right in March is it?"

Meanwhile, on my doorstep in Fryent Country Park, the impact of the drought is increasingly evident. Some of the clay paths are already dried and creviced and some ponds are completely dry.

 

Corresponding with an officer in the Parks Department I was told:

Many of the ponds are at their lowest winter water level on record.  In a typical year the ponds will fill with water once the ground has saturated: depending upon the autumn and winter rainfall that can be any time between summer and December.  However, ponds are invariably full of water by late January and remain so for several months. This year several ponds have not re-filled and many are below their typical summer water levels.   There have been a few relatively dry winters since local records commenced in 1983, but this winter fewer ponds are holding water than in the previous driest.  

The  immediate impact is on the amphibian life cycle with doubts over whether some will complete their life cycles this season.  The photograph below shows the edge of the pond (above top) where some recently hatched frog tadpoles have already died after the water in which the frogs spawned receded. The black areas are masses of tadpoles stranded in shallow water. Some tadpoles are stranded in tiny pools of water created by the paw prints of dogs and foxes which will dry up quickly without rain.  Tadpoles in shallow water are easy prey for predators and crows have been very active on the fringes of the ponds.It is generally reckoned that normally out of 2,000 eggs only 5 adults will survive to breed - the odds this year must be much lower.

I have seen no necklaces of toad spawn at all in the Fryent ponds this year. Newts will also be affected because they wrap their single eggs in the leaf of a water plant and these are lacking in the residual water left in the centre of the pond.

The Fryent ponds are clay lined and it is possible that some garden ponds which have rubber liners will not have lost so much water, and of course their owners are able to top them up (until the hose pipe ban comes in) The 'amphibian crisis' this year means that it is important that those of us with our own ponds make a special effort to support any tadpole populations that we have.

Pond insect life will also suffer and it will be interesting to see if we have a reduction in the dragonfly and damselfly population, for example, this summer.. The Lombardy poplar trees on the crest of Barn Hill, a local landmark,  have been looking sickly for some time, with one falling last year, and I would expect further casualties if the drought continues.

Meanwhile down on the allotment my fellow gardeners are preparing for the worse, installing additional additional water butts and other rain home made rain capturing devices (eg old baths!), and thinking about drought resistance plants.

Sod's law probably means that having written this  by Monday the heavens will have opened and the conduited hidden waterways of Brent will have over-flowed.