Public meeting about Network Rail deforestation in Grange Park disappoints..

Over 500 people crammed into The Church in the Orchard in Grange Park, N21 to attend the Public meeting organised by David Burrowes, MP for Enfield Southgate.
The atmosphere was expectant and slightly hostile as David Burrowes welcomed everyone to the meeting.

What did the meeting achieve?

• From the huge turnout during a working day, Network Rail must have realised that there was a concensus of public opinion against the works
• There are no plans for further works in the local area, but if this situation changes we will be notified fully.
• Network Rail have agreed to setup a steering group involving local people to look at ways of reinstating trees around the perimeter of the embankment. Details of the budget and timeline for planting will be sent to David Burrowes by 25th February 2011. 
• There will be another Public Meeting at a more accessible time to discuss progress of the scheme and the tree planting options.
• More people became aware that Network Rail is an unusual organisation, not having a statutory requirement to consult, not having to comply with the Freedom of Information Act and one that acts in a unilateral way without considering the impact of its actions on the local community. 
• Commitment from David Burrowes , MP to hold a debate in Parliament with the Transport Minister about Network Rail lack of accountability, focussing on the lack of meaningful consultation and information on ecolgical studies etc arising from Freedom of Information Act.

What now for the Grange Park embankments ?

We obviously now have a situation where all the trees have gone, and they are not going to be put back on the new grassed embankments that will be completed in July 2011. Network Rail have made this quite clear. What is possible, given a budget, is for the complete perimeter of the embankment area to be returned to a woodland band around the railway. The problem is we do not believe at this stage that there is any budget for tree planting around the perimeter. The single line in the contractors document mentions vegetation, not trees, and it appears to be Network Rails policy to avoid trees at all costs, irrespective of local public opinion.

Watch this video when Network Rail are asked about the trees and what they will do to replant the trees along the perimeter of the embankments ..these answers are key and also very worrying... 

The Environmental and Ecology surveys carried out before the works , we are told, are not public documents.We cannot see what Network Rail considered for this scheme. (Bat roosts are part of the survey)

A report from the Grange Park Network Rail Public meeting held on 11th February 2011

Some people thought that Network Rail would open with an apology for not involving the community at an earlier stage and for not making the local residents aware of the sheer scale of the removal of the woodland surrounding the Grange Park embankments that was to come. Not at all. In fact no statement was made at any point about the poorly worded letter sent out to residents and the total disregard of the impact this removal of woodland would make on the nearby residents and the character of Grange Park.

If Network Rail had even opened by saying that they had under estimated the impact of cutting down hundreds of trees without warning, and that they now realised that they should have called such a meeting last year, that would have set the tone of the meeting, but again this was not to be.

Mr Martyn Wilson, Senior Earthworks Engineer for the Grange Park Network Rail scheme was up first, to explain how and why the line embankments needed to be stabilised to prevent slow speed trains or derailments. No one was going to argue that the line needs to be safe and that the embankments affect the line. He talked about the embankment monitoring that Network Rail have been performing over the last four years and the essential works that were needed to ensure safety. Unfortunately, he occasionally talked about the works in the future, as if it was a planning meeting, justifying why the work was needed in the future when we all knew the harsh scorched earth policy had already been carried out. How we wished it was the consultation meeting before the event.

Martyn Wilson had a great knowledge of the Grange Park embankment issues and the ways in which the line needed to be stabilised, and as the meeting went on we were impressed with his professional approach and technical knowledge - surely Martyn could find a way of reinstating a mature and dense tree line around the base of the embankments, at least then restoring some privacy to the local residents and the character of Grange Park?

(We will be adding to this article and adding further videos over the weekend for those that missed the meeting)

David Burrowes did extremely well to chair a meeting where local residents were justifiably agitated with the actions of Network Rail in Grange Park.

A number of steps were agreed with Network Rail to ensure some of the trees around the boundary are reinstated. 

Here is the first batch of a number of videos from the meeting ...