Representation by Mark Pennell
- Date submitted
- 14 March 2021
- Submitted by
- Members of the public/businesses
I can well understand why the Swanscombe Peninsula is designated a site of Special Scientific Interest. As "brownfield" land it might have an inferior image of being "pre-used", but for a long time now ecologists have recognised the true value of brownfield over and above traditional greenfield sites, which frankly are often a biological desert by comparison, owing to intense agricultural pollution. Contamination with agricultural pesticides and herbicides of course speaks for itself, but it was ultimately the powerful fossil-fuel based fertilisers that destroyed our ecology. The artificial boost to our soil's naturally low fertility favoured coarser, more vigorous weeds which quickly swamped and took over our delicate indigenous flora. Coinciding with the wartime "dig for victory", fully 98 percent of our natural wildflower meadows were lost forever, with so many previously familiar species banished into extinction. Having had time to recover and revert to nature, Swanscombe today offers a wide range of flora and fauna, and habitats suitable for wildlife now rare elsewhere, including endangered mammals such as otter and water vole; various species of waterfowl; the statuesque heron and a rich diversity of other birdlife, from goldfinches to kingfishers, kestrels to tawny owls. It is an important breeding site for nationally endangered reptiles and amphibians, and obviously countless invertebrates. In short it boasts a much richer ecosystem than most rural countryside, in particular farmland. For humans Swanscombe provides a rare and FREE recreational space, in nature, away from busy streets - so important, as we realised during the pandemic. We've lost so much of our natural heritage in the South East. Can we really afford to lose a rare site like Swanscombe under yet more concrete? For a frivolous theme park? Would future generations of Londoners forgive us?