Over the last two years many of us have relied on green spaces to maintain our physical and mental health and wellbeing during the most difficult of times. Many of those green places exist in London and on our borders because of the vision and resources of the City of London Corporation over 140 years ago.
At that time the City showed huge foresight and philanthropy in purchasing the 6,000 acres of the ancient Epping Forest to help keep the city, and Londoners, fit and healthy as London expanded and became more polluted. Epping Forest was of huge importance to Londoners then, and throughout the last 140 years, but has also really demonstrated its immediate value during the pandemic, providing people with respite from the incredible demands of their jobs, an escape from their homes and screens and a quiet place to contemplate and be with nature – or a wilderness to explore safely with friends and family.
The increase in visitor numbers to all of the City of London green spaces proved a huge challenge for those spaces, their wildlife and heritage, and for the teams managing them, impacted by greater footfall, traffic and rubbish sadly left behind. But they delivered magnificently.
Epping Forest remains a hugely important ancient Forest, a Site of Special Scientific Interest and a Special Area of Conservation, with iron age camps and 1,000 year old trees continuing to demonstrate their beauty and resilience (although they are now threatened).
Now that we are, I hope, reaching towards the end of the pandemic, we must not forget these wondrous open spaces that have demonstrated their value many times over. Many thousands of new visitors will not do so and will continue to return to the place that has given them so much joy and solace.
Indeed, facing the challenges of climate change, loss of biodiversity, the health and wellbeing of Londoners and maintaining London as a truly world City, now is the time for the Corporation of London to once again be bold and visionary about the vital green spaces it owns and manages.
It would not just be a waste, but a short-sighted error in contrast to its forethoughtful past, if we were to return to the 40% budget cuts imposed on Epping Forest over the last 10 years. Indeed, even last year, at the height of the pandemic, when the Forest was both most in demand and most under stress, we saw a budget cut of more than 12%.
Now is the time not just to protect and conserve the Forest, nor just to retain the budgets allocated to maintaining it, but it is a time to genuinely invest, expand the “Buffer lands” that surround the Forest, and plant and manage them in a truly sustainable way that is good for Londoners, good for biodiversity and good for the planet for many years to come.
In the words of David Attenborough “Forests are a fundamental part of the planet’s recovery. They are the best technology the planet has for locking away carbon. And they are centres of biodiversity. The wilder and more diverse the Forests are the better they are at locking away carbon dioxide.”
Just as their predecessors raised their sights in Victorian times with the purchase of Epping Forest, I ask today’s generation of city politicians to demonstrate the City Corporation’s visionary boldness of old. I ask them to embrace and invest more in the green spaces they own and maintain. Expand and grow them.
In 100 years’ time people will still, of course, look back warmly on the 1878 Act that protected and preserved Epping Forest, but perhaps as importantly they will also celebrate the leaders of 2022, who had the vision to meet the 21st century challenges they faced, protecting the health and well-being of Londoners, and the planet, for generations to come.
Peter Lewis