Judi Dench backs campaign to protect London’s green spaces from developers | Access to green space

Dame Judi Dench has called for greater protection of London’s parks and green spaces, as research reveals more than 50 city parks are under threat from development.

The Oscar winner has long loved trees and in 2017 made a BBC documentary about her love for them. She plants a tree every time a close friend or relative dies, including for her late husband, Michael Williams, who died in 2001, and actress Natasha Richardson, who was killed in a skiing accident in 2009, and one for her brother Jeffery Dench, who died in 2014.

She said: “I consider my trees part of my extended family. It’s a living thing that continues. You don’t remember it and you stop; you remember it and the memory continues and becomes more and more wonderful.”

New research by CPRE London has revealed that at least nine parks, eight playing fields and eight nature reserves in London are at risk, including Whitewebbs Park in Enfield, Wimbledon Park and Green Dale Fields in Southwark. After a campaign by CPRE London and local groups, six green spaces were saved last year, including the locations of Finsbury Leisure Center in Islington, but seven were lost, including Crossness Nature Reserve in Bexley.

Campaigners in the countryside have criticized the government for allowing green belt development in new plans and for introducing a “gray belt” policy which classifies some protected land as ready for housing and infrastructure.

In Enfield, the local council has agreed to lease part of Whitewebbs Park to Tottenham Hotspur football club. It’s also the site of an old oak tree that was cut down by contractors last year, much to the public’s dismay.

Dench said: “Astonishingly, 10% of public land in Britain has been lost since 1979. Whitewebbs Park in Enfield is one of the public parks currently under threat. There, a 450-year-old oak tree was brutally massacred and Spurs’ plans to develop the park involve felling 207 trees, including old and mature trees, and reclaiming most of the park for their private use elite.

“It is clear to me that it is more important than ever to protect our parks and green spaces before it is too late.

A local campaign group, supported by Dench, has launched a judicial review to appeal Enfield council’s decision to lease the land.

There is also a long-running dispute over plans by the All England Lawn Tennis Club to build a new stadium, 10 private buildings and 38 tennis courts on a previously public area of ​​Wimbledon Park.

Alice Roberts, head of campaigns at CPRE London, said: “In the last two years we have faced two new challenges. Almost unbelievably, a legal judgment has confirmed that councils have unlimited powers to sell parks. Elsewhere, parks are being transformed into commercial event spaces. If you think London’s parks are protected, think again.

“Secondly, the UK government has given in to lobbying to remove green belt protection, introducing a ‘grey belt’ policy allowing landowners to profit from protected rural land they bought cheaply years ago, despite the large-scale availability of brownfield land in London, including a staggering 300,000 unbuilt homes without planning permission.