This is a new leaflet being sent round about what the council is touting as justification for its decision to demolish The Kingfisher Leisure Centre in the heart of Kingston
But the council’s ideas for what they say might replace The Kingfisher look very worrying for the future of Kingston’s rare chalk stream, the Hogsmill River, and for The Kingfisher local green space
Please keep signing and sharing widely the petition to save The Kingfisher from demolition. The council’s “plans” are simply getting crazier by the day
Now it seems that council plans to demolish The Kingfisher will put even our rare chalk stream at risk
What nature will survive in the Borough for future generations when it is under threats such as this?
Local Kingston resident, Claire Mellish, published the following comments:
1. The leaflet says "Our aim is to make this leisure centre one of the greenest ..... in the country", but the image appears to show a third of the remaining green space at The Kingfisher being concreted over.
If this was really a green scheme, why would it involve building over gardens surrounding the existing Kingfisher Leisure Centre?
2. The leaflet continues by saying "our ambition is to power the whole centre with renewable heat generated from the Hogsmill River."
Heat pumps using rivers can either be open loop systems, pumping water out to extract heat and then pushing back colder water, or a closed loop system which places closed pipes within the river, full of circulating antifreeze to extract the heat. Both systems put back colder water into the river and change the normal river temperature and flow rates.
With an open loop system, large volumes of water would be pumped out from the Hogsmill all year round and colder water dumped back in. Scouring plumes of colder water will certainly affect the existing ecosytem. If it is to be a closed loop system, then there are changes to flow rates and water temperature over the pipes and downstream. There is also the risk of toxic antifreeze leaking directly from the pipes into the river.
It is doubtful whether the current low Hogsmill flow rates could sustain a heat pump without damming the river, with concomitant environmental damage.
Apart from damage to the Hogsmill banks (piling etc, pipes etc) there is so little scientific data or research presented for the potential impacts of a similar scheme*, it's frightening to see that this is even being considered. They don't even know what faster running colder water will do to the fish or eels because there is no data on minimum survivable/ thrivable temperatures for any of the fish listed, let alone other organisms or the river ecosystem.
What is the point of damaging a precious and rare chalk stream ecosystem and risking a dead river downstream in order to heat a new leisure centre when the existing Kingfisher Centre can be refurbished?
*You can read about the type of scheme being suggested on page 73 of this document, a 2016 Technological ecological feasibility study on the use of a water source heat pump on the river Wensum by the University of East Anglia: 09-Appendix: Detailed review of the ecological impact potential of WSHP discharges.
It is also available here: https://bit.ly/HogsmillKingfisher
Please do not delay in asking as many people as you can to sign the petition to save The Kingfisher Leisure Centre from demolition