Update: *This post was originally written in support of RHS Wisley in response to Highways England’s proposed land grab. Happily HE have now (as of Nov 2017) selected an alternative option. You can read Wisley’s reaction to this here.
#MyWisley #saveRHSWisley
I was shocked to see this news about the possible land grab from the RHS garden Wisley.
The strip of land that Highways England are considering may be narrow, but the effect of losing the buffering effect of the mature and beautiful trees in the boundary about the trial grounds will be so much further reaching than that. There will be little peace in the gardens once the glorious 100 year old green filter has been cut down.
Please take a look at the video RHS Wisley have made to highlight the problem and then sign the petition**** if you feel as horrified as I do.
**** Warning: I have been alerted that signing this petition can result in signatories receiving spam emails from the care2petition organisation who organised the petition form for RHS Wisley. I have not had any such problems myself, so I am guessing that you must take care with the tick box selections that they offer.
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Thanks for highlighting this Allison, and, for the link.
Wisley seem to be doing a good job of keeping this in the news & social media, so hopefully the pressure is on Highways England. There is an alternative proposal, but that also has protection issues. 😦
Sadly, the peace of RHS Wisley has always been spoiled by the noise of aircraft taking off from Heathrow and from traffic on the A3. This dreadful proposed new encroachment will be disastrous. Can we have no protection from the inevitable take-over of our countryside by traffic? Soon all that will remain for us will be the ‘concrete and tyres’ of Philip Larkin’s ominous poem ‘Going,Going’.
It is the lack of total protection that bothers me too. The HS2 route is creating similar headaches for the Woodland trust etc.
I read about this too. As there is a second option, let’s hope they select that. Thanks for the link, I’ll willingly sign the petition.
Thanks Christina. The campaign is strong and hopefully will be successful.
Signed petition, even if not from UK, I hope it helps.
Thank you Eliza. It’s great to get the campaign seen globally
I have signed the petition even though I think we need to improve our road systems. More thought is needed into the choice of routes and its consequences. I would approve of HS2 if it’s main aim was to get freight off the roads.
I don’t disagree about needing road improvements, but there are alternatives and it seems a disproportionate amount of damage in this case. In the case of the HS2, I think that some of the ancient woodland under threat should be protected whatever, but do agree that the shift to freight is very important.
I’ve spent many hours in those trial fields and can’t imagine it without the trees. You can hear the A3 clearly as it is. The road system round there does need to be improved but surely there’s a better solution.
Well, there are alternatives, but none without issues. The damage to Wisley really would be more than losing a few trees though.
Indeed it would.
I’d heard of this, thanks for the link Alison I’ve just signed, Frances
Thanks Frances.
hello Alison, since signing this petition I keep getting emails from care2petitions, I have junked them and tried to unsubscribe from their email list though I did not subscribe in the first place, I’m posting this here so anyone else coming across this post is forewarned, also because I am wondering if anyone else who signed has had the same problem and have they been able to stop it, I feel my signature has been miss used and sadly it will make me hesitate about signing again online, Frances
Frances,
Sorry to have given you problems this way and thanks for alerting other people.
Having said that, I am not getting any mail from them, either straight to my inbox or to my junk folder. Perhaps it was a matter of unchecking a tick box somewhere on the form.
In anycase I hope that you manage to get them to stop sending you spam soon.
PS I’ve added a warning to my original post to highlight the issue.
hello Alison, the mail seems to have stopped I haven’t had any for over a week now, maybe there was an opt out tick box that I missed, though personally they should all be opt in tick boxes,
I think I got nervous as a few years ago I was bomb barded by charities asking for money, thankfully not by email as I have not given it but by letter several a week sometimes 2 in one delivery and I was being phoned, it reached the stage where I said to one caller that they would not be happy until I had given them my house and pension and was on the streets, the sad thing is it has prevented me from giving to charities now, there are 2 I have given to monthly for years and I still give to them but any unsolicited post goes straight in the bin,
Frances 🙂
I am very glad to hear that you have the spam in hand now. Some charity phone calls can be very persistent, especially if you have helped in the past. My bug bear is calls from computer ‘specialists’ telling me that I have a problem I don’t know about which they need to fix. Out and out crooks!