Thank you for speaking up for nature and supporting the petition to save urban woodland at Lomond Grove. It received more than 450 signatures, while 30 of the 31 public responses to the planning application were against the proposed development. We’re sad to report that Southwark Council’s planning committee has nonetheless taken the decision to fell the trees and build on this site. Work is expected to start in the new year. 

All the new homes being built will be social housing, reflecting the council’s commendable determination to address the housing crisis in our inner London borough. However, we must continue to ask, does the need to make more housing available have to be at the expense of nature and of people’s quality of life in what is already a densely built-up area – and set to become still more crowded, with other developments nearby in the pipeline?

Please join us for a brief vigil to share our collective sorrow for the loss of the woodland, on Sunday 16 January. Join us on instagram live at 3:30 at instagram.com/southwarknature, or meet in person under the big chestnut tree on Camberwell Green (between the war memorial and the children’s play area) at 3pm for a short, socially distanced walk to Lomond Grove.

If you live locally, you might also like to upload a video to Sadia’s project to record people’s thoughts about the woodland before it disappears. Click on the box labelled Send Love and follow the instructions.

Finally, we want to share some good news. While the Lomond Grove Woodland will soon be making way for development, our signatures and comments have had a lasting positive impact on the green corridor between Burgess Park and Camberwell Green-- Southwark Council has decided to shelve all building projects targeting the destruction of Lomond Grove’s sister woodland, Elmington Woods (behind Draycott Close, one block away) A council officer recently notified Elmington Community Gardens that “the council felt keeping the green area more beneficial than using the area for more new housing”.

Wishing you all a peaceful new year in harmony with the natural world,

Southwark Nature Action Volunteers