Lea Valley Regional Park Review

PUBLIC MEETING on Tuesday 15 March 2011, 7.30pm

Calling all Hackney Society Members

As many of you will know, the Lee Valley comprises by far the greater part of Hackney’s open space including the parks at Millfields and Springfield, the playing fields of Hackney Marshes and the secluded beauty of the Old River Lea and the Middlesex Filter beds.

The Lee Valley Regional Park Authority is currently conducting a review of its plans for the future development of the Park over the next 10-15 years.  It is giving priority to reviewing its plans in Hackney (between the Olympic Site and Copper Mill Lane) because of the acute development pressures affecting this part of the Park.

Many Hackney Society members will be aware of the extended saga at Essex Wharf where Waltham Forest have granted consent for a large housing development on a key riverside site and the developers are appealing to be allowed to build even more flats.  Other threats to important sites in the Park unfortunately lie ahead.

The Lee Valley Federation is a new group – representing a coalition of community groups – seeking to promote protection of the LeeValley as a green lung and ecological resource.  In our short period of existence, we have already had significant success in persuading the Park Authority to carry out this review of its plans.  

At present, the Park Authority is carrying out a somewhat furtive ‘web-based consultation’ on its future plans, with a closing date of 28 March. For its part, the Lee Valley Federation has published its own ‘vision’ for the future of the Park – a future of greater access to the closed off areas of the Park; a future of tearing down of fences; of greater freedom to wander and access to the magnificent spaces of Walthamstow Reservoirs from Hackney.

We are holding a public meeting on 15 March to explain our vision, and to encourage public participation in the future development of the Lee Valley Regional Park.

Our website at http://www.leavalleyfederation.org/ has downloadable copies of our vision documents; links to the Park Authority’s consultation; and a wealth of news and fascinating interesting historical stuff about the Park.

Our meeting flyer is below.