Butterfly Bank - Meeting on the Green, 26 November

39 people and a dog came to the meeting on Woodcote Green on the 26th of November 2022.

Jim Simms, our chair, had called for this meeting with the head of diversity for the council, David Warburton, who was supported by Richard Barnes from the London Wildlife Trust. The two made a strong case for the programme for putting such banks on green spaces across the borough and elsewhere: the essence of the argument being the need to provide a range of wild flowering plants to cover the needs of butterflies and other invertebrates. They stressed the need for such sites to be near enough to each other and to link with big spaces such as the Roundshaw Open Space.

Local residents made their views known: all opposed the project on Woodcote Green. Grounds included these.

1. There had been no consultation with local residents.

2. The dumped chalk was ugly.

3. The mature bank would be ugly because (examples were quoted) litter would accumulate.

4. There was no funded plan to maintain the mature butterfly bank.

5. The butterfly bank was too large for this small green.

6. The centre of the green had been heavily used for ball games by local young people – space for such games was now limited and closer to the roads.

7. Local gardens were already homes for lots of butterflies in the summer.

8. If the green was a designated village green, what had been done would be contrary to the green’s purpose and possibly illegal.

Mr Warburton apologised about the lack of consultation and information but remained committed to the project. During the discussion, he reported that consent for butterfly banks on some potential sites – none council parks - had been refused.

Elliot Colburn MP, Councillor Ed Joyce and Councillor Patrick Magnus spoke about the need for better communication and the lessons to be learned.

Jim Simms referred to the local consultation, which had after the arrival of the bank material. The ballot been strongly in favour of removal of the bank. He called on Mr Warburton to get the dumped material removed and to return the site to its previous site. Mr Warburton agreed that contractors would do the removal and that the area would be seeded with grass in late spring 2023.

Patrick Radford, secretary for WGRA