Appendix 1 HAVERING NATURE CONSERVATION AND BIODIVERSITY ACTION PLAN (2014-16) Rationale / Issues Targets / Actions Lead Organisation / Person 1. Increasing the amount of To increase the amount of park land and open LBH / Havering natural space in the borough. space that is managed as grass meadows and Wildlife Project / Natural space provides a positive wildflower meadows, year on year. Friends of Groups environment in which a variety of species can thrive. There is a To prevent the intrusion of “scrub” in to areas of need to balance the need for grassland that are important in nature more formal green space, for conservation and biodiversity terms. sport and recreation activities, with spaces that are managed in To take advantage of opportunities to acquire way that supports nature land that could be converted in to a more natural conservation and biodiversity. environment, particularly in areas of the borough where there is a deficiency of open space. Though the Council has taken opportunities to increase the size To create more natural environments in town of parks and green spaces over centres, where opportunities arise, particularly the years, adding approximately where such areas can link to surrounding open 80 hectares to Dagnam Park in space via green corridors. 2013; confirming 55 hectares as Rainham Wildspace in 2012; To manage Dagnam park in a way that support identifying 23 acres to be and enhances nature conservation and managed by the Council as a new nature reserve (adjoining biodiversity. Wildspace); adopting Hornchurch To work with the Cems and Crems Service to Country Park in 1980, adopting Havering Country Park in 1986 establish whether further effective ways to and enhancing the nature promote nature conservation and biodiversity in conservation value of spaces in cemeteries can be developed. town centres, through initiatives such as the wild flower planting next to Central Library in Romford; this objective is not seeking to increase the amount of designated public open space in the borough, although taking advantage of opportunities to increase the amount of open space in areas of deficiency may be desirable and it is recognised that urban development will have its benefits. Rather, the objective is primarily about increasing the amount of open space that is managed in a way that increases the amount of natural space. Rationale / Issues Targets / Actions Lead Organisation / Person 2. Wetlands: Support the Environment Agency (EA) in the Environment Ingrebourne & Inner Thames development and rollout of catchment Agency / LBH / Marshes SSSIs management plans with the aim of working Havering Wildlife towards good ecological status as defined by the Project / Friends Ingrebourne & Beam/Rom Water Framework Directive for the Ingrebourne of Groups rivers and Beam/Rom river systems. Lakes, ponds and other marshes As a riparian owner the Council will manage its Wetlands are nurseries and landholdings alongside main rivers in the feeding areas for a vast range of interests of Nature Conservation, at the same animals, including a number of time as managing rivers and associated flood specially protected species such plains to reduce the risk of flooding. as water vole, bittern, marsh harrier and great crested newt. Continue the work of restoring Havering‟s wetland habitats and monitoring for priority Within Greater London, Havering species including great crested newts, water has 56% of the grazing marsh, voles and wetland birds. 31% of the reedbed, 31% of the Continue the creation of new ponds in suitable floodplain grassland, 25% of the (i.e. not vulnerable to pollution) locations, seeking marshland, and 19% of the lakes especially to extend existing clusters of ponds. and ponds, in all cases more than any other London borough. Continue to support the “Froglife” project, focusing on amphibian and reptile conservation Its river systems, the Beam/Rom at Bedfords park, Dagnam park and Hornchurch and the Ingrebourne, are Country park. exceptional in London in that (with the exception of the Rom Management of SSSI sites in line with HLS through central Romford) they are management prescriptions to maintain/achieve largely natural, i.e. not favourable condition straightened or canalised. Monitor and, where possible, eradicate non- native invasive species including floating pennywort, crassula, Himalayan balsam and Japanese knotweed Develop and promote the Ingrebourne Valley and Wildspace projects as exemplars of good practice in the management of wetland habitats in Greater London and Essex Rationale / Issues Targets / Actions Lead Organisation / Person 3. Woodlands: established and Encourage good management of ancient Foresty developing woodland, wet woodland and parkland, such as Commission / by encouraging take up of the Forestry Thames Chase Before the new plantings initiated Commissions‟s English Woodland Grant Scheme Trust / by the Forestry Commission (EWGS) and establishing markets for woodland Havering Wildlife within the Thames Chase products. Project / Essex Community Forest (TCCF), County Council Havering was poorly wooded Link established woods to developing woodlands (particularly in the south of the and to one another via restoring or planting tree borough), but it had important belts and new hedges. woodland assets in the form of: • wet woodland in the Support the Thames Chase Trust and the Ingrebourne Valley; Forestry Commission in their ongoing • the parkland sites (Bedfords development and management of the Thames Park, Havering Country Park Chase Community Forest. and Dagnam Park) in the north of the borough; Devise and implement woodland management • a scattering of ancient plans using diverse resources including local woodlands. colleges, forestry operators and local wood fuel • suppliers 158.3 ha of new community woodlands have been planted by In managing its own woodlands, the Council will the Forestry Commission, work towards a target of thinning 30%, under the increasing woodland coverage in agreed felling licence. Havering by more than 40%. Established and immature woodland will lose its value unless actively managed, as the canopy closes and the understorey declines. Rationale / Issues Targets / Actions Lead Organisation / Person 4. Grasslands, meadows and Improve grassland management by the LBH / Forestry pastures encouragement of sustainable long term commission / NE conservation grazing and sympathetic cutting / Private Havering have 12% of London‟s regimes. landowners grassland resource, more than any other London borough except In the management of its own grasslands, Bromley and Hillingdon. Roughly meadows and pastures, the Council will consider half is high-value (acid and the improvement of grassland management unimproved) grassland, and half through sustainable conservation grazing and is „semi-improved‟, in other words sympathetic cutting regimes. This will include the it has been ploughed and/or management of its parks and road side verges. fertilized and/or reseeded in the recent past to improve it for Identify potentially valuable scrubbed over agricultural purposes. This grasslands for restoration. reduces its wildlife value drastically in the short term, but in time this value can be recovered Work with Natural England to encourage private through appropriate landowners to enter their grasslands into agri- management, such as by grazing environment schemes, particularly where this and hay cutting. buffers existing priority habitats or improves ecological networks. Havering Council has introduced a new Higher Level Stewardship (HLS) scheme at 3 of the most important grassland sites in the borough at Bedfords Park, Dagnam Park and Havering Country Park. Rationale / Issues Targets / Actions Lead Organisation / Person 5. Restored landscapes The restoration of Raphael Park; the restoration LBH / RSPB / of Langtons Gardens; the creation of a new park EWT / Veolia / The Council, in partnership with a on the Broxhill site; the creation of a new park in NE / EA / Forestry wide range of local, regional and Rainham (“Wildspace”); the proposed national organisations will be Commission / “naturalisation” of the River Ingrebourne in Friends Groups / progressing a significant number Harrow Lodge park; the restoration of the Clear Village / of projects and initiatives to Bedfords Walled garden and the growing of Sustrans conserve and protect the natural “indigenous” vegetables, fruits and plants; the environment in the next few proposed new visitor centre in the Ingreborne years: Valley; the creation of new, publically accessible open space in the heart of Romford town centre; The Green Belt land around Havering has been mined heavily the creation of new meadow areas in parks and for gravel in the past and former open spaces; the continuation of the “Rainham to gravel pits and other brownfield the River”project; the “Greening the Ringroad” sites are now being exploited for project in Romford, which will include the landfill. promotion of walks connecting the town centre to local open space; environmental improvements Habitats of high value for in Hornchurch Town Centre, which will include invertebrates (e.g. Thames Terrace grasslands) have the promotion of walks connecting the town developed on some brownfield centre to local open space and the countryside; sites, while others have reptile the creation of a new open space on Briar Road assemblages that are rare in estate; the extension of Dagnam park. Greater London and should be prioritised for protection and Use planning conditions