Public Consultation on Sports Facilities at Wanstead Flats

There was a public and user consultation at Harrow Road changing rooms on Saturday 27th and Sunday 28th February 2010, organised by the Corporation of London.

This is part of the e-mail sent out by the Football Development Officer for the Corporation's Epping Forest Division:

"At the end of February, we are consulting with all involved with Wanstead Flats as to how you feel our efforts should be directed in coming years and with future investments.

Following our recent investments at Harrow Road and with plans to actively seek funding for future investments across our site, this is a great time to provide your feedback. This is also your opportunity to share your thoughts on the operation of the sports facilities at Wanstead Flats as we look to offer the most effective service.

We would like feedback from all sections of the Wanstead Flats community; dog walkers, joggers, cyclists, horse riders, footballers, spectators, local residents and schools!

Please help us to circulate this as widely as possible so that everybody gets their say".

This was an opportunity for people to voice their concerns about football and other sports activities on the Flats, especially as at a meeting organisedlast year by the Friends of Wanstead Flats there was some mention of the possibility of expanding the number of pitches. Wanstead Flats is an extremely valuable wildlife habitat, with a diverse resident population that includes some quite rare species in this area. It is also being increasingly realised that it is an important stop-over point for migrant birds as well as those visiting for the winter or summer. The playing fields themselves offer feeding and grazing potential for such birds as Meadow Pipits and Skylarks and particularly for gulls and geese in winter - so their value must not be underestimated. Incredibly, the wonderful colony of Skylarks seem to exist quite happily despite the disturbance that might be perceived to come from such activities as model-aircraft flying, noisy football games or simply dogs and walkers.

That said, the value of lowland heath-type habitat, with rough grassland, is immense, so we shoud think carefully about losing any of this. In fact, perhaps we should think about increasing it and enhancing it - as is being attempted by the scraping of some areas west of Centre Road.

Although the e-mail mentioned above mentioned "all involved with Wanstead Flats", the questionnaire offered at the consultation was perhaps limited in its scope, aimed much more at sports-users than other groups. It was clear, however, that numbers of people who had attended had expressed their concern with other issues - often connected with the sports activities - such as on-street parking.