Dear Warren Farm Nature Reserve supporter,

Hold on to your hat, because we have some BIG stormy updates to share with you today – a sprinkling of good news and some potentially high-polluting concerning NEWS THAT REQUIRES ACTION! So please wrap-up warm for today’s petition update…

Let’s start with the good news.

Our conversations with Ealing Council had, we thought, been going rather well. Ealing Council Leader Peter Mason, (who this petition is addressed to alongside the Mayor of London) agreed to our request to have some redundant fencing removed that ran down one side of our wildflower meadow. Its removal has opened-up a restricted Public Footpath making it safer for visitors and created a Wildlife Corridor! Now our hedgehogs can wander freely and our ground-nesting skylarks are safer from predators, who used the redundant fencing as a perch to easily pick-off skylark chicks. So far, good news for skylarks! Plus, we were able to contribute to the cost of the redundant fence removal with thanks to AXA UK who generously funded us £2000 as part of their Green Initiative!

THIS is what achieving Biodiversity Net Gain looks like!

And THIS… well, this is what achieving Biodiversity Net Loss *might* look like…

Last week, Ealing Council launched a #WarrenFarmNR Public Consultation – seeking public opinion on what the future of Warren Farm should be. The announcement included discussion of a nature reserve… and sports pitches. We weren’t too surprised about the idea of sports. Peter Mason had always said he wanted Warren Farm NR to serve both nature and sport. In our conversations with him we always maintained that our meadow in its entirety must be safeguarded with Local Nature Reserve designation. Allowing for this, it might therefore be possible to use the brownfield site on Warren Farm, which currently has derelict buildings on it, for a limited and contained sports area, provided that it does not infringe on the meadow wildlife. We have been very clear since day one on this and our stance has not changed.

So why are we predicting a potential storm up ahead…?

We were not advised of the Public Consultation and we therefore had no input into its design. The consultation questions are heavily weighted towards sports. More importantly, it fails to give the true picture of what Warren Farm is today - a remarkable rewilded species-rich urban meadow!

Interest from a local privately owned football company has arisen as a result. If this company were to develop #WarrenFarmNR as its new ground, the conversion of the wild meadow into football pitches and a stadium would lead to the loss of rare and vulnerable plants that are facing London and U.K wide extinction. This would, in turn, threaten the U.K Red Listed skylarks, who are hanging on here for their survival, as well as the barn owls, bats, birds, mammals and a multitude of insects, amphibians and reptiles.

So here is our CALL TO ACTION!

3 things YOU can do today to please help make Warren Farm Nature Reserve a home for wildlife:

1 – COMPLETE THE PUBLIC CONSULTATION – Warren Farm has not been used for sports in over 12 years and before that our rewilded meadow was indeed a farm! We are saying to Ealing Council give all of the meadow on Warren Farm, Local Nature Reserve designation. Warren Farm already IS a Nature Reserve, in everything but official designation. Please ADD YOUR VOICE by clicking here! Let’s do this! 

2 – PLEASE CONTINUE TO SIGN AND SHARE THIS PETITION – We have over 11,000 signatures thanks to YOU! That’s 11,000 supporters who truly care for wildlife and who want to see Warren Farm Nature Reserve become a reality! Our petition stays open until our species-rich meadow is safe. Let’s keep going!

3 – FOLLOW US ON SOCIAL MEDIA and SIGN UP TO OUR NEWSLETTER – we post daily on Twitter / Instagram @WarrenFarmNR and our Facebook Group, Warren Farm Nature Reserve. Sign up to our newsletter by emailing richard@warrenfarmnaturereserve.co.uk Let’s keep in touch!

THANK YOU so much for your continued support, it really means a lot to us and our wildlife! Onwards through the stormy weather together we go, we’ve survived worse and are stronger for it, more updates incoming!

Team #WarrenFarmNR

www.WarrenFarmNatureReserve.co.uk

Pls note - donations made through the Change.org petition do not go to Warren Farm Nature Reserve or the BRCS. However, donations do allow Change.org to find like-minded people to support our cause, thereby allowing the petition to reach more supporters of nature. Thank you.