The FOWWS trustees meeting, September 2004

Dear Friends of the Scrubs

Last week your Trustees held their regular meeting ahead of the Wormwood Scrubs Charitable Trust (WSCT) meeting, although that was cancelled.

 Please click here for the Manager’s Report (from Osama) relating to the cancelled meeting.

Please click here for the Minutes of the Trustees Meeting on 16 September.

 Following our meeting, we sent the below email to Osama with a list of questions and comments, inviting his response, and the letter (in black) and his responses (in blue) are below.   It contains quite a lot of useful information about future plans, and we recommend finding the time to read it, as well as the two attachments.

 Best wishes

 Stephen Waley-Cohen

Dear Osama,

The Trustees of the Friends of Wormwood Scrubs met this week, and as a result I am writing to you with some questions, suggestions, and thoughts concerning your various recent reports.

We greatly regret the cancellation of two successive meetings of the WSCT Committee, which means that it will not have met between March and December this year.  We urge that there be no further cancellations.

We look forward to your suggested November date for the periodic get-together of Officers and contractors with FOWWS Trustees

 Thank you. Options for November will follow later this week.

 The bramble and scrub clearance.

We greatly regret the very late communication to everyone, via FOWWS, of the timing of this, and feel that it is really worthwhile to have discussions on plans further in advance, even if the exact timing is not yet certain.  For example, that would have given us sufficient time to help WSCT  by discussing the importance of clearance management with members, as well as giving Friends a voice by identifying issues early and providing feedback or raising questions, such as, in this case, regarding the removal of cherry plum trees which provide food and shelter for birds. 

Proper advance notice avoids looking as if WSCT wants to avoid scrutiny for its actions, and enables wide support to be gained.

We recognise the need for the clearance, but feel that a rather heavy burden is placed on Kate McVay as the sole ecologist ensuring that the actions of the professionals and volunteers conform with best practice

Thank you for this feedback, and please let me apologise once again for my mistake in delaying that notice. My initial plan was to send out confirmed dates once Idverde had responded with their exact availability. There was some confusion as to whether the tractors would actually be available for use last week. That information was only secured on the Friday afternoon prior to the works taking place on the Monday. I was also waiting on the web-team to update the webpage before sharing, which was also delayed. In the future, I will send out notice of the work (without confirmed dates) at least 2 weeks prior. If dates are then made clear, then I will communicate those. Please bare in mind that we are at the behest of autumn weather. So I’m very pleased to see that we have been able to undertake this years mechanised cutting well before the wet weather.  

During the development of this programme, LBHF Ecology advisors also gave their input and feedback as to how we should aim to address bramble/scrub across site. So from an Ecological perspective, we are enjoying more than just Kate’s input on these works. While I understand your concerns with the pressures placed on Kate, she is under instruction from her line manager at Idverde to prioritise these works above all else. That is a case of time management, to which Kate has acted with the utmost professionalism.

Finally, you make a very good point in mentioning that we can work together to mitigate any concerns, if given sufficient prior notice. Especially given the fact that some of these works involve cutting selected cherry plum tree’s across a handful of locations.

Cherry Plum, while naturalised in the UK, is non-native and does not provide the same ecological value as closely related native species. For example, the locally rare and protected Brown Hairstreak will only lay its eggs on Blackthorn (Prunus spinosa) and ignore Cherry Plum. The removal of the Cherry plum will provide more space for native shrubs and trees and ensure it does not outcompete these species. We appreciate that these trees bear fruit which can be enjoyed by humans and animals. The reality remains that these trees dominate the eco-systems in which they sit, if not maintained properly.

Various points arising from your informative and helpful Manager’s Report:

We look forward to hearing what is planned following the withdrawal of the planning application to OPDC for the Masterplan, and hope that this will not be too long delayed, which we accept may mean omitting those items requiring planning consent.

 Thank you. We are drafting up amended schemes and hope to be able to share a more detailed update before our next meeting in November.

 Forest School:  we understand that this is scheduled for October, behind the community centre near Braybrook Street.  We would welcome advance notice of the dates, so that we can forewarn walkers, including those with dogs, that it will be there.

 Thank you very much. I will liaise with Urbanwise and get back to you. Myself and Urbanwise met with Old Oak primary school deputy head last week, who is absolutely over the moon about this offer and thinks we will be heavily over-subscribed once the school has begun promoting.

Local Nature Reserve application for the Meadow area – we welcome this information, and look forward to working with you to promote the consultation when the time comes.

 Thank you. I’m confident that the consultation will commence in early on in 2025. This all depends on idverde’s scrub management programme.

 Kensington Dragons and other Linford Christie Stadium works;  we look forward to reasonable notice of the final plans and the timings of the different work strands, so that we can advise Friends. 

 Of the 3 schemes at Linford Christie, the demolition/portacabin replacement will take place first. Contractors will be on-site from 07.10.2024. I’m hoping to meet with the contractor this week, so once that meeting has concluded, I will send you a more detailed update on the entire capital programme, which you can share with the FoWWS.

 We note that the bollards at the entrance adjacent to the Scrubs Lane car park are not yet in operation and wonder when this can start?

 We are waiting on the supplier to come and help us fit the SIM cards for the intercoms. Awaiting a date, but I’m hoping they will be in use by 02.10.2024

 We wonder where the planned bike racks will be located, and whether they will be enclosed (available to keyholders only) and/or available to casual bicyclist visitors? There are currently no bike racks on the west side of the Scrubs. The newly hoggined ‘seating ‘area on Braybrook St, could be put to new good use, with open bike racks.

Thank you for the suggestion. While we have included the cost of those racks within the budget, we wanted to work with stakeholders to identify the best location. I will take note of your suggestion and welcome any others.

 We welcome plans towards a café (and publicly available toilets) and urge that it be accessible from the north (Scrubs) side to avoid making it inaccessible to people with dogs.

A very good point. The demolition/portacabin replacement scheme will be conducted in 3 parts. 1. Demolition. 2. Portacabin installation to replace the changing rooms, showers and toilets. 3. Replacing the community room.

I’m working with colleagues in the Council to assess whether the community room can include a kitchen facility, as that could become a space that we let to an operator under a service level agreement, similar to that which we visited in Brent (over a year ago).

 We would welcome consultation on the plans for the dog exercise area adjacent to LCS.   We wonder if it includes making it larger and more user-friendly?

Yes, once the swales have been constructed, we can look to replace the fencing, extend the fence line, include exercise apparatus and improve the signage. If the FoWWS have any particular requests with this scheme, I’m open to all suggestions.

We note positively the issue of multiple Fixed Penalty Notices to professional dog-walkers ignoring the PSPO restriction on numbers, and encourage continued pressure on irresponsible companies, or individual professional walkers.  There continue to be many with more than 4 dogs, and more than one walker forming large packs of dogs.

That is really useful feedback, which I will pass onto the LET team. Thank you for your support and patience while we all try to influence and modify that behaviour.

Looking forward to hearing back from you on these various matters of importance to our more than 500 Friends

 Best wishes

 Stephen Waley-Cohen