HIGHWAYS ENGLAND LAND GRAB OF OUR BEAUTIFUL CAMPSITE!
GOOD NEWS, CAMPSITE WILL REMAIN OPEN FOR THE FORSEEABLE FUTURE!
Compulsory purchase order land grab of our campsite and land under the guise of environmental mitigation!
We believe they will use the site for storage or similar and then build on it!
Please also copy in the CEO for Highways England Nick Harris here….nick.harris@highwaysengland.co.uk nick.harris@highwaysengland.co.uk
A CPO on our land and business would not compensate for any adverse impact on the environment caused by the road as we are already a wildlife park that is actually used and enjoyed by thousands of countryside lovers.
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 Gill Mills
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). Vince 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. |
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
Vince Turner, Karl Osborne, Thamesview Camping
Owing to the further delays in decision we cannot see the rush to get together and would rather meet when all relevant parties are available in person.
We have had no real dialogue with anyone concerning our campsite and no redress to the lack of reply from any department we have contacted.
Further to our original objection and the logic that a CPO on our land and business would not compensate for any adverse impact on the environment caused by the road as we are already a wildlife park that is actually used and enjoyed by thousands of countryside lovers.
As you are aware we already have many nesting sites for birds and bees, including owl boxes, bat boxes with an abundance of Bats, a breeding pair of resident Kestrels, A family of Cootes and a pair of Shell Ducks as well as migrating birds of all varieties, Water vole, and the rarest UK Bee the Shrill Carder as documented by the Bumble bee preservation society whilst staying at our camp site. Another 1300 trees to be planted this month and another 4kg of wild flower seed. We are also in the process of adding to our water habitats by constructing a wildlife pond.
We would however consider selling our environmental mitigation to highways where they could contribute to any new habitats, restoring degraded habitat, and preserving or enhancing existing habitats to offset the adverse impacts of the project. After all, the acquisition of our land in the name of environmental mitigation would only be a change of name and a claim to have offset the adverse impact by taking what we have already done.
All the best Vince and Karl
Thamesview Camping
Mitigation banking
A mitigation bank is a site that preserves an ecosystem to offset the damage caused to another ecosystem by a development. Mitigation banks sell mitigation credits to individuals or entities that are undertaking commercial projects.
If you use your land to undertake environmental projects, you may be able to sell these services as credits or units to different buyers.
- a new or updated legal agreement to cover the remaining time on the initial agreement, plus at least 30 years for the new habitat works
In practice, environmental mitigation measures might be implemented by establishing new habitat, restoring degraded habitat, and preserving or enhancing existing habitats to offset impacts that cannot be avoided or reduced.
Environmental mitigation is the process by which project proponents apply measures to avoid, minimize, or compensate for the adverse effects and environmental impacts resulting from their projects.
Hi Richard,
As we have pointed out in numerous communications, we cannot see how the CPO on our business and land would mitigate any environmental impact caused by the LTC project as we are already operating as Greener Camping club wildlife park.
You have stated that our land is earmarked as land used for open mosaic. When we queried this, it was explained that it would be an area of long grass with some mown areas with parcels turned over periodically to release old seed beds. This is the very practice we have been carrying out long before any LTC concerns, we only mow the pitch areas and pathways, we have planted thousand of trees as part of our Greener Camping club site owner responsibilities. We have sown many kilos of meadow seed, we have a resident Owl, breeding Kestrels, water voles, swifts, Sand Martins, Heron, Little Egret, Shell ducks, a family of Cootes, Bees, Butterfly, Shrill Carder Bee, rare meadow fauna (as found by natural England) We have spent thousands dredging and maintain drainage ditches to create habitats that have been readily occupied. How could your acquisition of our land possibly compensate for any environmental impact caused by the LTC project? It would simply be a change of name and Highways claiming our wildlife park as their own work. We note you have changed the original drawings submitted and added a pond to the plan. As you know we are already in the process of building a wildlife pond to add to the habitats for our existing wildlife.
As previously mentioned, we would consider selling our mitigation to the LTC project in a form of Mitigation banking as described on the Gov.Uk website. Mitigation banks sell mitigation credits to individuals or entities that are undertaking commercial projects.
Environmental mitigation measures might be implemented by establishing new habitat, restoring degraded habitat, and preserving or enhancing existing habitats to offset impacts that cannot be avoided or reduced. By contributing funds to help maintain and possibly improve on our project it would be a legitimate claim for LTC to say they have helped to compensate for the adverse effects and environmental impacts resulting from the LTC project.
Simply taking our habitats and creation is like saying we have destroyed a farm in the making of the project, so we are taking the one you have built and claiming that we built it. (or a similar analogy, but you get the drift?)
For the avoidance of doubt as to what we are proposing.
The taking of or business could not possibly be a legitimate claim to environmental mitigation carried out by the LTC project.
We are offering a legitimate route for Highways to claim they have compensated for adverse impacts on the environment by contributing to our existing wildlife project which is not too dissimilar to the proposed plan of open mosaic.
Regards, Vince & Karl
Thamesview Camping.
Summary reply from LTC
The stated intention for this area, as set out in our application, is to convert it to open mosaic habitat, the precise detail for which is given in Section 8.23 of the outline Landscape and Ecology Management Plan (oLEMP link). This is a certified document within the DCO application committing the project to delivering this requirement and managing it in perpetuity in line with the detail in the oLEMP. The acquisition of essential mitigation/compensation required for the project, of which this site forms part, is a fundamental tenet of the application as it grants National Highways the powers to ensure its delivery and long-term management, which leaving it in private ownership would not secure.
The open mosaic habitat typology proposed for this compensation does not align with what currently exists at the Thames View Camping site or the wider surrounding area. However, we recognise that the site has been managed to increase its biodiversity value and we would look to retain and enhance that value through the detailed design of the compensation proposal.
