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Organisational Overviews: London Lakes Project

Author: Mr Mike Wilkinson, Chief Parks Office, Wandsworth Borough Council

Over the last fifty years the environmental and amenity value of lakes in urban parks across Europe has been reduced by poor water quality and bank erosion. Lake quality has steadily declined as a result of increased pressures from human activity, pollution and the resulting imbalance in the ecology of the lakes.

Wandsworth Borough Council embarked on an ambitious programme of improvements to its parks and open spaces in 1993 but was hampered by the lack of technical information on how to tackle its decaying shallow urban lakes.

The Council received European Commission for LIFE funding for a three-year project entitled the London Lakes Rehabilitation Project. Three lakes of varying size, in Battersea Park, Tooting Common and King George’s Park, were chosen to demonstrate an approach to rehabilitation and management which could be applied throughout Europe. The Life project culminated in a successful European Conference in Battersea Park in 1997. Since then the project has won a number of awards.

• Completion of the initial stages of physical rehabilitation of the three lakes, including the improvement of water quality, lake vegetation and bank areas;

• The development of a land-use management model for urban lake areas which can subsequently be applied elsewhere;

• Demonstration of the benefits of such a scheme to the public to gain their co-operation in the maintenance of environmental standards;

• Encouragement of the rehabilitation of similar sites across Europe.

Achievements to date

Full details of actions taken and the evaluation of their effectiveness are available on the project’s web site (www.wandsworth.gov.uk/londonlakes/index). Achievements include:

• The provision of boreholes

• Management of fish stocks

• Introduction of a reed bed

• Researching and managing waterfowl

CONTACT DETAILS

Wandsworth Borough Council
Leisure and Amenity Services Department
Parks Division
The Town Hall
Wandsworth High Street
LONDON SW18 2PU

Tel: 0181 871 6368

www.wandsworth.gov.uk/londonlakes/index