Six new Sites of Importance for Nature Conservation proposed for Kingston

Following an independent review of the borough’s Sites of Importance for Nature Conservation (SINCs) last year, six additional wildlife areas have been formally recommended to receive SINC status.

In July 2020 Kingston Council commissioned Land Use Consultants (LUC) to undertake an independent review of the borough’s SINCs.

The review was initially guided by a local engagement exercise with community groups and ecological experts who helped put forward various sites for consideration for SINC status.

SINCs are non-statutory sites that are designated due to their importance for nature conservation. A number of wildlife areas across Kingston borough are already recognised as SINCs forming vital components of the ecological network and green corridor in the borough.

The proposed new SINCs will bring the total of sites across the borough to 45:

  • Alexandra Millennium Green
  • Beverley Park and Beverley Park Allotments (combined as one SINC)
  • Hogsmill Community Garden
  • Knollmead Allotments
  • Mansfield Park
  • Alric Avenue Allotments

Further recommendations were made to upgrade the status and/or extend the boundaries of a number of existing SINCs, including changing Tolworth Court Farm to a Site of Metropolitan Importance, and Kingston Cemetery to a Site of Borough Importance.

The review also identified four sites that are at risk of downgrade (potentially losing their SINC status) in the future due to a decline in ecological value: Coombe Wood Golf Course, Seething Wells Filter Bed, The Leyfield and Jubilee Meadows.

The council will continue to engage with the landowners of these SINCs to encourage the positive management of these sites to improve their ecological value and ability to support biodiversity, and protect their SINC status. However the council’s actions are limited to encouraging and advising landowners to look after their sites - we are unable to enforce action.

LUC’s recommendations will now be validated by a local Site Selection Panel (consisting of statutory agencies, non-governmental organisations, borough officers, and local nature representatives) before any changes to SINCs are carried forward into the preparation of the draft new Local Plan.

The findings from the review will be shared with Kingston Council’s new Biodiversity Partnership, made up of local experts (dedicated naturalists, conservationists and community groups). The Partnership will help guide and inform the council’s new Biodiversity Action Plan launching later this year.

Comments

Post new comment

  • Web page addresses and email addresses turn into links automatically.
  • Allowed HTML tags: <a> <em> <strong> <cite> <code> <ul> <ol> <li> <dl> <dt> <dd> <p>
  • Lines and paragraphs break automatically.
  • Filtered words will be replaced with the filtered version of the word.

More information about formatting options

CAPTCHA
This question is for testing whether you are a human visitor and to prevent automated spam submissions.

By posting content on Surbiton.com, you agree to adhere to the following guidelines.

  • Your username and password must only be used by you, keep them safe. If a posting is made using your username and password it will be considered to have been posted by you. If you have a friend who wants to use our site and post messages on the site, show them how to register.
  • Be courteous at all times, inciting racial hatred, posting abusive, obscene, threatening, harassing, defamatory, libellous or sexually explicit material or any material that is found to be offensive is not acceptable and we may suspend your username and password.
  • Retaliating to offensive posts causes more problems for other users on the discussion boards. Just report such messages to us using the Feedback link which is available at the top of every page or the 'report this' link associated with individual postings. We will act on every report we receive.
  • Please respect other people's work and do not post material that infringes copyright.
  • Do not post information that you know to be confidential or sensitive or otherwise in breach of the law. You should only post material that you know to be public knowledge. If you have any doubts do not post it on the site.
  • Never attempt to gain unauthorised access to any area of the site. This is known as hacking and is illegal.
  • Content posted represents the opinions of the author, and does not represent the opinions of Surbiton.com or its affiliates and has not been approved or issued by Surbiton.com. You should be aware that the other participants are strangers to you and may make statements which may be misleading, deceptive or wrong.
  • Spoofing or posing as another user is unacceptable. Anonymous users' postings should always be considered with suspicion.
  • Help keep Surbiton.com a safe place for information and opinion. Please alert us of any anti-social behaviour as described above.
Please note that Surbiton.com does not monitor the comments posted and we are therefore reliant upon users reporting antisocial behaviour.