Representation by Thamesview Camping (Thamesview Camping)
- Date submitted
- 9 January 2023
- Submitted by
- Members of the public/businesses
Objection letter. For the avoidance of doubt, we whole heartedly object to the proposed land grab of our campsite and land under the guise of environmental mitigation. The proposed use would be to mitigate the destruction to countryside caused by the new road built by highways. Our land is earmarked as Open mosaic habitat, Which explained to us would be an area of long grass alongside short grass, some manmade earth mounds and an ideal would be an area that has previously had burnt out vehicles and bare earth. This sounds absolutely absurd to us. We already have this in place with our management of the land. We are a Greener camping club site and have grown from strength to strength over the past few years. Originally started with 15 pitches and open March to October but due to our popularity with nature lovers and likeminded people we have expanded to 25 pitches and year round use. We are a Greener camping club site to provide Eco camping on the River Thames utilising the Trees for life scheme, Every membership help us plant a tree on our site. We have excellent reviews for our green ethos and have been a regular go to place for authors such as Georgina Wilson-Powel founder of Pebble Magazine and with books like “Is it really green?” And “The Eco Conscious Travel Guide”. Georgina_wp Morning. Coffee with a warm breeze and plenty of birdsong on a hidden spot of the Thames Estuary. Hard to believe opposite us is one of the UK’s busiest ports! Today’s the start of Weekend 3 in the 2022 great UK campervanning adventure... Stunning eco campsite with a grass labrynth to break up the views. @thamesviewcamping #vanlife #weekendaway #outsideisfree #optoutside#naturematters #exploreuk Also nothing but praise from media personality [Redacted] [Redacted] 5/5 3 months ago on Google A brilliant campsite that does deliver on its eco claims. The compost loos were some of the best we have found, the recycling points clear and comprehensive and the solar showers and wash area clean and efficient. The pitches were well thought out, the idea of mowing a sort of crop circle as your ‘territory’ was great, as was the fire pit and picnic bench. As a transport infrastructure geek, it was fascinating to walk along the Thames and look at the gateway to London and see the massive liners along the false horizon. There was a mini football pitch and lovely cows and horses and all the other guests were mindful of noise and pollution (no cars running just to charge their phones for example). [Redacted] was a great host, making this a great wee campsite and one we will be returning to. Everything. Close to home but right on the Thames and …25/07/2022 russ m.Confirmed ? · Non-electric grass tent or trailer tent pitch · Recommend to friends Visit again · Liked: Everything. Close to home but right on the Thames and surrounded by country side so although close to houses at front the drive takes you down to where there is brilliant pitches very clean eco toilets and showers. Fire pits available on pitch and dried wood to purchase. The whole site is surrounded by grasses and nature in abundance this is not brick city so relax with or without firepit and take in the best of this site, no disappointment to be had and would recommend this site to every lover of the country life. Fab easy to get to site to escape from London13/06/2022 · Non-electric grass and gravel touring pitch · Recommend to friends Visit again · Liked: Perfect small campsite. Fantastic mowed out pitches supplied with fire pit & picnic bench, surrounded by long meadow grass giving a sense of privacy. Compost loos very clean. Great walks to explore the nature reserve & estuary. Very calm & relaxing stay. We will definitely come back. In the last two years alone we have planted over 500 trees, sown over 50kg of meadow seed, installed an owl box which has residents, dredged drainage ditches that are now home to various aqua hydrophytes, water voles, small fish, the occasional Shell ducks and a Heron to name but a few. At various times of the year we have an abundance of wildlife visiting our campsite, three different varieties of bees found by ecologists who visited to numerous nesting breeding birds i.e. Woodpeckers, Robins, wren, gold finch, chaffinch, tits. Sand Martins nest in our huge dredge pile, Skylark, Reed Warbler, Marsh Harrier, owls of at least three varieties, red kite, Kestrels etc etc . Adders are also on site but tend to keep to their self in far corners. In fact everything indigenous to our part of the world but not excluding a stork that hung about for a few months. We have implemented various nesting sites and protect nests with necessary measures and controls. We regularly, if not daily monitor the land and wildlife. The pitches and pathways are mown into seeded tall grass meadow which hosts an abundance of butterfly and even rare meadow flowers as spotted by ecologists recently. Every year the site is fertilised and cared for. Each pitch is home to a fire pit which is moved periodically to allow the earth to recover. We have been turning patches of grass over to encourage seeding of plants that may not have surfaced for a few or even many years. How can anyone possibly claim to mitigate anything by claiming our land? Nothing in their plans would better anything we have already done by a long way. Our campsite is and has been enjoyed by thousands of people and wildlife and hopefully we will continue to carry on with the dream. We cannot understand why Highways has not claimed the neighbouring brown field site with over a hundred acres next to us that has spent decades as landfill and only stopped trading in December? In summary: By grabbing our land there would be no mitigation but rather the opposite. Highways would like to use an established green field site for mitigation rather than a brown field site with at least 10 times our size which actually needs mitigation next door. Any habitation compensatory methods would negatively impact on the already thriving habitats we have on the land. We have areas with protected species already here and find it hard to believe that highways could justify jeopardising their habitat by turning over the ground regularly with a JCB as they described to us as a mitigation for destroying nearby land with a JCB! We would welcome the introduction of any suitable species that would need to be moved due to the highway on our campsite on the understanding it would have no negative impact on the wildlife we already have here. Sincerely [Redacted] Thamesview Camping