Thames Landscape Strategy - Hampton to Kew -

Arcadian Diary August 2005

August is traditionally the time for family summer holidays and I expect a lot of you have been away somewhere wonderful this year. I would bet that in the majority of cases the location chosen for your holiday was near to water be that the sea, river or lake. Water in all its forms plays a major part in almost all our recreational lives naturally drawing people to it.

I spent the bank holiday weekend down in Devon and Cornwall and sure enough water played a major part in my break. Whether this was splashing around in the sea or walking along bubbling brooks across Exmoor, everywhere one turned there was water. One of the places I visited was Polzeath on the other side of the Camel estuary from Padstow. In a near-by village just above the high water mark is a tiny church half buried by the sand dunes. In the graveyard is the tomb of poet Sir John Betjeman. The spot is next to a seat that he loved to sit and watch the fishing boats come into port and the tides ebb in and out of the estuary. It was whilst sitting here that he famously said ‘to love Cornwall is to love the rain!’ and sure enough it did rain that day. Whatever we do, water in all its forms shapes our everyday lives, the environment around us and the way that we use it.

In our part of the world in South West London we are so lucky to have such a marvellous environment. There are so many factors that make the area what it is – clean streets, beautiful houses, low crime rates, splendid views, good shopping, parks and gardens, but it is the River Thames that brings all these together and it is the river and its tributaries that provide the backbone for everything else. It is no co-incidence that property prices correspond to location and lets face it, ours is pretty good.

This quality of environment does come at a cost however. All the open spaces, parks and rivers have to be managed and that means that money has to be found to do this. The majority of the Arcadian riverside between Hampton and Kew is in public ownership, open 24 hours a day, 365 days a year and is free to use. Charging an entry fee is completely out of the question so the funds come mainly from local Government. Whilst we all pay some, if not the highest, council taxes in the country, the way that central Government allocates its budgets actually means that we have some of the poorest councils in London in terms of what they can actually spend. This obviously has a knock on effect and limits the amount of money that can be spent on looking after our open spaces.

The Thames Landscape Strategy encompasses four local authority areas and five riparian (that simply means ‘riverside’) landowners. Whilst all of these organisations allocate as much funding as they can for the riverside there is always so much more that has to be raised. This is where the Thames Landscape Strategy partnership really comes into its own. By working together money can be found that would not necessarily be available to any single organisation.

A good example of this way of working is the ‘London’s Arcadia’ project for the riverside on and below Richmond Hill that has brought together a variety of related works under one funding umbrella. This variety of different tasks being undertaken in the project is excellent for funding and does provide a fantastic holistic approach to environmental management, but it does involve balancing the views of many different groups and individuals.

Working on such a variety of different and potentially conflicting themes within one project naturally encompasses a wide cross section of the public and this always means that we receive a diverse range of views and opinions as to the work that is being carried out. Managing these expectations is one the most challenging and rewarding parts of my job with the Thames Landscape Strategy. There isn’t one person I have met in my five years doing the job who does not have a strong opinion on how the riverside should be managed. This just goes to show just how much people cherish the Thames. What the Thames Landscape Strategy does is to find the best solution for any given environment set within limited budgets and public need – both for the works themselves and for ongoing maintenance.

This brings us back to funding again. To carry out quite simple things such as resurfacing the towpath, restoring historic railings or planting trees involves sourcing money from a variety of separate pots. The London’s Arcadia project is funded by the Heritage Lottery Fund but only up to 50% of costs, the rest has to be raised quite separately from a variety of trust funds, companies and local individuals. This is why earlier this year we launched the fund raising initiative for Arcadia. Lots of people have been very generous and a staggering £500,000 has now been raised but this still leaves almost £700,000 to go. When one considers that the Arcadia projects are just one area along the riverside and even here the works are just the tip of the iceberg in terms of what is needed the scale of the funding that has to secured is daunting.

There are so many good causes around but I am confident that we will raise what is needed as the river affects all of our lives in some way. The Arcadian Thames seen from Richmond Hill is so special. One of the things we are asking local people to do at the moment is to let us know what are your favourite poems, words or sayings that sum up the View from Richmond Hill for you. We will then have some of these inscribed onto the new stones that have been laid on the Terrace Walk. These can be old or new just as long as it sums up the view for you. I was wondering whilst in the little Cornish churchyard nestling in the dunes above the Camel Estuary whether Sir John Betjeman wrote anything about Richmond Hill. If he did I would be very grateful to find out.

For more information contact Jason Debney on 020 8940 0654 or if you would like to help with the London’s Arcadia project contact Tasha Hunter on 020 8891 7399

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