NOGOE - the local pressure group against the use of Greenwich Park for the equestrian events of 2012 - are to hold a public meeting this weekend.
The meeting will be an "open discussion" and you are invited to go along and "have you say". NOGOE say that the meeting will be "the one that LOCOG never held".
Local councillors and planning officers have been invited to the meeting which will take place at the John Roan School (Maze Hill site) on Sunday (17th) afternoon from 2pm to 4pm. The phone number for any enquiries about attending is 020 8853 2567.
Please note that a creche and car parking will be available, and that the consultation for the planning application has been extended till 27 January, so it’s not too late to have your say. There will be an exhibition of maps and facts from LOCOG’s application. A poster advertising the meeting can be downloaded from http://www.nogoe2012.com .
BBC London News is scheduled to feature on tv TOMORROW (THURS) new research about the legal position of using Circus Field, Blackheath for the Olympics.
There’s a sort of downloadable aide-memoire on the NOGOE site, about the environmental damage (which is likely to be absolutely cataclysmic, as I can see from reading the Planning Application documents), adverse social and economic effects, etc:
I have to say that the environmental damage that WILL be caused by LOCOG’s preparations for and use of the Park for the equestrian events is absolutely staggering. Didn’t the experts that LOCOG consulted tell them that pesticides can be harmful to non-target organisms and have adverse effects on human health, wildlife and the environment; pesticides can persist in soil, where they may affect organisms that play a part in natural soil processes and pesticides can contaminate water by running off the land into drainage channels and water bodies or moving through the soil into ground water? It is evident from the Planning Application documents that LOCOG think that they can apply pesticide to the cross-country course and that it will stay within the course and kill only the “target species” (which are not identified, by the way).
Using pesticide in a public park (because of the effect on vulnerable people like children) is probably unlawful, anyway. Certainly, LOCOG would have to conduct a risk assessment, and they couldn’t use any old pesticide (the Planning Application does not mention which pesticide they are thinking of using).
And why did the Royal Parks Agency last April commission a study from Irriplan to see if the conduits could be used to supply water for the equestrian events, and why is that study not mentioned in the Planning Application? What other “off balance sheet” things are the Royal Parks doing for LOCOG?
More than 200 people attended this afternoon’s lively public meeting at the John Roan School. More soon.