Cow parsley, alkanet, and buttercup in bloom

• THERE was a most beautiful run of cow parsley, alkanet, and buttercup in bloom all around the edges of the Hornsey Lane Estate Hornsey Lane parkland last week (pictured above). Biodiversity at its most alluring, giving huge pleasure to the passer-by.

This week it is all gone, strimmed, leaving broken ends of daffodils which have lost their leaves too early so they will not flower as well next year. The Islington Wildlife Gardeners have come across other incidents very recently.

On Tufnell Park Playing Fields a semi-wild area agreed with Islington Council was “subjected to extreme strimming and pruning”, and effectively trashed by the contractors, affecting bulbs, wild flowers and mature Pyracantha shrubs.

At the Graham Street Park the contractors were all set to behead newly-planted shrubs, but a resident stopped them after only two were destroyed.

Contractors can do so much damage in such a short space of time, and I understand that similar incidents are becoming increasingly frequent.

Strimmed parkland, leaving broken ends of daffodils

The council profess in their “Biodiversity Action Plan” to be determined to: “enhance or improve existing areas of habitat”.

But in too many cases lack of control of contractors / maintenance staff results in destruction of areas of habitat, loss of future flowers, berries, etc, leaving a landscape which then looks very depressing and uninteresting for months while the grass regrows.

I call upon Cllr Rowena Champion, the council’s environment leader, to ensure that officers can properly control contractors’ activities so that they do not destroy our little patches of
nature, in support of the aspirations in the action plan.

Perhaps requiring a schedule of mowing to be placed alongside areas to be mown in advance, so that at least residents could check this before damage is done and, if necessary, alert someone in authority. Or altering the contracts to include penalties for causing damage.

The action plan needs to be actually carried out on the ground if it is to be more than window-dressing. I also call upon our new Green Party councillors to take up this issue.

SUE LEES, N19