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Great crested grebe |
New path to Ladies Pond will feature a lot of birds...
Latest instalment in Fitzroy Farm mansion plan sparks outrage
A WACKY plan to build a raised wooden walkway through a bird sanctuary on Hampstead Heath has been suggested by developers working on a palatial mansion overlooking the Ladies Pond.
The temporary path – which has been jokingly likened by sceptics to the forest tracks used by furry Ewoks, the bear-like hunter gatherers in the Star Wars films – is the developers’ answer to helping walkers dodge heavy vehicles heading to the site of a multi-million pound mansion at the Fitzroy Farm site in Highgate.
Controversially, they want to use the sand-and-gravel path which takes walkers along from Millfield Lane to the Ladies Pond for heavy lorries.
The track is still the main route to the site – but the developers want to give walkers their own dedicated path, on raised stilts, through what is currently an out-of-bounds bird sanctuary – a haven for paroquets, owls, woodpeckers and great crested grebes.
On Saturday an emergency meeting of the Hampstead Heath management committee will discuss their response to the idea.
The owners of the Heathside Fitzroy Farm site have been given permission to demolish a mock-Elizabethan home and replace it with a mansion that boasts a three-storey basement.
To get diggers and equipment on the site, the developers had suggested a builder wearing a DayGlo jacket be employed to walk in front of hundreds of heavy lorries.
Heath superintendent Simon Lee has said although the raised wooden path would solve the problem of helping walkers avoid heavy-duty truck, he still harbours concerns.
“The proposals would have an adverse impact on the ecology of this part of the Heath and would reduce the privacy of the Ladies Pond,” he said.
Mr Lee added that the City of London, the Heath’s managers, could turn it down on legal grounds. He said: “The City of London has no powers to permit the Heath to be used to enable private development, especially when this will have an adverse impact on the ecology of the Heath.”
Jane Shallice of the Kenwood Ladies Pond Association said she was so shocked by the proposal that when she saw it her “eyes nearly fell out”.
She said: “They will be driving this through an important, delicate plantation. To assume this would be ok is completely unacceptable.”
She added: “To have those levels of trucks going down it would absolutely destroy it. This is about preserving the path for future generations. That they could even entertain such an idea is totally monstrous. It is pure arrogance. The people behind his scheme seem to think money is everything and they can do whatever they want.”
The architects behind the scheme are father and son team Quinlan and Francis Terry.
They run a practice renowned for neo-classical Palladian-style design, although their design has been criticised by the Highgate Society, who called it “a grotesque pastiche of Kenwood House”.
Michael Hammerson of the Highgate Society added: “I am distressed by the cheek of this developer, who seems to think they can use the Heath for their construction traffic.”
Owners Millamant Limited are based in the Isle of Man.
They told the New Journal they would listen to the concerns.
A spokesman for the company said: “We are sensitive to local concerns and are proposing various options, to be widely consulted upon, that address health and safety, and environmental matters.
“In response to concerns raised by local interest groups, one of the options for the Construction Management Plan includes a temporary raised wooden boardwalk alongside Millfield Lane and we are in the process of consulting key stakeholders the various proposals.” |
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