Conflicting Issues: Harding's Pits
(For an overview of Hardings Pits, visit hardings-pits.org.uk. The following was written by Sally Smith, secretary of Kings Lynn Civic Society and deeply involved in the Hardings Pits project from its inception.)
Harding's Pits Doorstep Green is a unique natural environment. It cannot be reproduced elsewhere in an alternative location and the proposed development would be detrimental to its nature. The King's Lynn Civic Society agrees that the covenant between the Countryside Agency - now Natural England - and the Borough Council of King's Lynn and West Norfolk must be upheld."
This resolution, a unanimous vote by the executive committee followed the announcement of new proposals for the marina at Boal Quay and the land south of it - principally the Harding's Pits Doorstep Green (HPDG). If carried out, the Green would be well nigh obliterated.
This is substantially different from the earlier King's Lynn Marina Master Plan published in July 2007 which planned a marina on the Nar Loop with housing to the north and south leaving HPDG untouched. The Revised Master plan has the Nar diverted from Blubberhouses Creek (just west of the South Gate) to cross the green on its southern side and to exit into the Ouse well south of the present outfall.
Between this and the marina there will be housing development, but it will be far more extensive than in the original master plan, covering what is left of the green after the Nar diversion - and yes, that includes our magnificent whale. It has been suggested that the loss could be replaced by provision of an alternative site elsewhere; there will, too, be walks along the diverted river.
The change has come about because of the need to address fresh-water flood risk in the light of run-off from the housing development, at HP and the new NORA development, and global warming and climate change which could affect levels further upstream
We are not in a position to comprehend the technical data of the flood risk, and indeed have not been privy to that data - but we see no reason why the residents of South Lynn and the Friars should lose their 'green lung' for which so many of us fought a decade ago.
You may remember the plan to build a supermarket on the Pits, the only area of open space beside the river.
When that battle was won, the borough council, which owns the site, approached some of the group which had led the fight and asked them to apply for funding under a 'new' initiative - a Doorstep Green.
As the name suggests the plan was to provide green spaces in urban areas and in all 200 greens were formed all over the country. The programme was administered by the Countryside Agency (now Natural England), match funded via the Big Lottery Fund and local resources.
Grants of between £10,000 to £150,000 were given to local communities, to help them 'to create and manage their own special local open space.'
Applications could be made only by community organisations, hence the request from the borough council to the local community in the Friars and South Lynn residential areas. The Harding's Pits Community Association (HPCA) was formed, and a grant awarded to design and develop the 5.5 acres as a public open space and a wildlife resource.
Consulted, members of the community overwhelmingly, decreed that they did not want 'a park', they wanted their area tidied up, accessible footpaths put in and planting to encourage as wide a variety of wildlife as possible. Above all they did not want to lose the blackberries they had picked for generations.
Work began in 2004 and the Green, one of the largest of them all, was opened two years later. The site is protected as public open space by a covenant between the borough council and Natural England, for a period of 25 years. Its management is devolved to HPCA by a framework agreement between the borough and HPCA for the same period.
Community commitment has been considerable. The Pits is not a misnomer, the land is simply that, and filled over the years with the town's rubbish, as the first JCB bucket revealed. Before any planting could take place, teams spent hours picking up by hand huge quantities of glass and tins, filling five skips in all. The major ground-works demanded big machines, but the subsequent tree-planting was accomplished with physical labour.
And that has been the story ever since. The terrain is too uneven to be able to use more than hand-tools and, without power on site, unmechanised ones at that. Pikes, scythes and hay rakes have been acquired from 'antique' tool specialists and smallholding suppliers and volunteers have learned how to use them. Cropped grass and other vegetation is then carted away by hand.
There is a regular rota of litter-pickers, without them the Pits would soon return to the rubbish dump it once was. And a regular group of workers hack back brambles, trim verges, keep the young trees clear of overwhelming growth - those blackberries are monster brutes - and generally take on the heavy work.
The result is neither pretty nor manicured; wildlife sites rarely are. What has been achieved is a naturalised common within an urban area where, in the past two years, over 150 species of vascular plant, 23 mosses and nearly 80 bird species, with good breeding populations of linnet, goldfinch, blackcap and whitethroat have been recorded. Resident grass snakes, adders, stoats, weasels and foxes have been observed. An invertebrate survey has been instituted in the knowledge that there are resident populations of common blue and small skipper butterflies.
It hasn't all been hard work. There are early-morning bird walks followed by a bacon-butty breakfast, prepared on site. In the evenings a plant enthusiast has led groups through the wild-flower meadow and we have supped wine as the sun goes down. Simply sitting under the whale regarding the expansive views over the town and Ouse or picnicking on one of the seats where the young trees flourish is a delight.
It is our view that no alternative site would offer the same public/wildlife value, nor, of course, would it be that green lung beside the Ouse and twixt South Lynn, The Friars and the town.
But all this goes with the marina proposals. At the meeting of the scrutiny committee of the council's regeneration and environment panel in late January it was clearly explained that the £30m marina project needed the housing for economic viability. Even with the additional chunk of the Pits' land this would have to be at a rate of 60 'units' to the acre which would mean apartment blocks at least three storeys high. Questioned, officers agreed that it was possible that a developer would wish to build even higher to achieve more units.
Of course, if the covenant is to be broken Natural England will have to agree, and although officers had not approached Natural England until the proposals were finalised, - indeed Natural England knew nothing of the project - they are now in consultation with officers there. The scrutiny panel was also told that HPCA was being consulted. To date this has taken the form of a meeting in early January at which association officers were told about the new plan, which was already formulated, and informed that under it public open space would be in the form of walkways along the diverted river and along the original banks to the linear park (at present behind the security fences) beside the Nar, with some additional land on the Wagg Jex site.
This alternative would in no way replace the Green. To begin with trees could not be planted along the banks, the Environment Agency is highly unlikely to allow it. Moreover it would be precisely the neat and tidy park the community has been so opposed to since its inception - and we would have lost that wild and natural place.
If this happens then a serious precedent would also have been set with implications for the fate of every other Doorstep Green in the country.
Moreover, community involvement has been central to the development of the Green and continues to be central to its management. As I said earlier, all maintenance and administrative work is carried out by volunteers. The Green's destruction, following the many thousands of hours which members of the community have devoted to it would send a message hugely counterproductive to community involvement in local affairs.
Since this article was written, the Civic Society has now voted to that it will write to Natural England expressing concern at the prospect of the covenant being revoked, particularly because of the effect upon other community involvement projects.