It is 150 years since the Hampstead Heath Act of 1871 was passed in order to protect this valuable green space, close to central London, from commercialisation and development.
Since 1897 the Heath & Hampstead Society has defended the Heath against further encroachments, and in their most recent newsletter you can see an article by former KLPA Chair Nicky Mayhew here (page 22) about our recent, and entirely avoidable, battles with the City of London Corporation concerning swimming charges. The response from Anne Fairweather (current Chair of their Hampstead Heath, Highgate Woods and Queen’s Park Management Committee) seeks to take credit for concessions hard fought for in 2020 by the KLPA.
On 7 January 2021, the Hampstead Heath, Highgate Woods and Queen’s Park Management Committee held an additional meeting to discuss the outline of budget cuts of 12% across the City of London Corporation for 2021/22. There was a surprisingly heated debate by committee members, objecting to the imposed budget cuts and seeking to raise their objections with the City’s Resource Allocation Sub-Committee which meets later this month. The Management Committee appeared incensed that their views might be ignored (in much the same way that they ignored the views of the Hampstead Heath Consultative Committee in March 2020 concerning swimming charges). The full meeting can be viewed here. Interesting contributions are seen from Ruby Sayed and Karina Dostalova (Chair of the Management Committee at the time that the Consultative Committee was over-ruled).
Currently we cannot access the part of the Heath which brings us together as an association, Kenwood Ladies’ Pond. The bathing ponds will remain closed for the foreseeable future due to the requirements of a third national lockdown to combat the Coronavirus. Our campaigning activity continues, even if constricted in scope by the terms of a national lockdown. Fair access to open spaces has become more important than ever in the last year.
If you have not already done so there is still time to complete our survey on the economic impacts of the current swimming charges here. Please forward this link to any other swimmers you know who may have been affected by the charges.
The survey closes at midday on Sunday 17 January 2021.