Autumn Leaves

It's now wet and windy October and six months have passed since our first public event at Siebert Road/ Westcombe Hill. It may seem to the untrained eye that not much has happened since then, in that nothing has visibly changed on the ground yet at either site (apart from some litter picking by our staunch members!). However, a lot has been going on behind the scenes and we will hopefully see real signs of change at Siebert Road and also at Westcombe Park station before next spring. Some of the things that have been happening are:

• Siebert Road - this is one of the sites chosen by The Royal Borough of Greeenwich (RBG) for improvement works using some of the pot of money provided by Transport for London (TFL) for local environmental amelioration of the impact of the Silvertown Tunnel construction project. As such, the plans for the site are being drawn up by landscape architects Systra and the council's Highways Department, incorporating residents' views as expressed in the consultation scheme that was run in 2025.
  
  Wilder Greenwich has had very useful meetings with both of these bodies and have able to argue (successfully, we believe) for the plan for Siebert Road to primarily reflect its agreed status as a rewilding site. While we are awaiting the final detailed plans, the discussions we have had have focused on the planting of native hedging, bulbs and the creation of a hibernaculum and other habitat features to help local wildlife. We are currently unsure as to when the council will undertake the works although they last indicated January 2027 as a possible start time.
  
  Over the summer, of course, the site was affected first and foremost by the drought but also on two occasions by the council's mowing team! We understand that the necessary conversations within the council have now happened to ensure that both Siebert Road and Westcombe Hill have been removed from the rota for regular mowing.
  
  Despite these obstacles, our volunteers identified an encouraging variety of grasses, flowering plants and invertebrates during our two "meet the public" events in the spring and the family bio-blitz that we held in late June.

• Farmdale Road - just across the motorway footbridge from Westcombe Park station is Farmdale Road, another site identified by RBG for improvements using money from the Silvertown Tunnel pot. We have been able to argue for two changes to the outline plans initially proposed by Systra for this area. One is for the new fencing that is proposed to mitigate the impact of the motorway on local residents to take the form of a "green wall" rather than the unsightly and ineffective fencing that has been installed on the western side of the A102. The other is for the creation of an experimental garden near the foot of the curved descent ramp from the footbridge using crushed concrete, an approach which has been very successful deployed in other locations such as West Dean in Sussex.

• Westcombe Park Station - Wilder Greenwich has been formally recognised as the station adoption group for Westcombe Park by Southeastern and we have recently been awarded a £600 grant by the Community Rail Network towards the cost of planting native hedging in the raised beds on the northern platform at the station. We plan to undertake the necessary soil improvement and planting works in January 2027 and we hope our volunteers will turn out in force to help!

  
  

• Royal Borough of Greenwich - the council has recently appointed Joe Beale as its first Biodiversity Officer and we have contacted Joe to let him know about Wilder Greenwich and our plans. His encouraging response gives us grounds for hope that we will be able to work more closely with the council on future projects.