The Protect Our Ponds campaign congratulates waterways expert Stephen Myers on his alternative proposals for the Hampstead Heath Ponds. He shows that the City does not have to ruin Hampstead Heath in the name of health and safety (“Engineer’s alternative plan for Heath ponds”, Ham&High, April 26).
 

But there is  an even better alternative plan. Do nothing! These dams have been around for hundreds of years. They have been well maintained and the chance of them bursting is negligible. The necessity of the whole project has been exaggerated by the City’s PR men and retained advisers, some of whom are consistently misrepresenting the facts to encourage a sense of fear in the community against an event which is not going to happen.

In last week’s article, the story stated that a strong storm in 1975 caused water to spill from the ponds but it is not known if this was directly responsible for flooding in dozens of basements. This is a misrepresentation as it is well known that none of the ponds directly caused flooding of people’s homes in Gospel Oak and Dartmouth Park in 1975. The flooding was caused by run-off of surface water and inadequate sewers which have since been enlarged. 

What is true is that, under the City of London’s proposals, some people’s homes are more likely to be flooded directly from the ponds as the aim of the works is to make it easier for water to flow from one pond to another and eventually to overflow at the bottom of each chain of ponds. 

Until the City stops using advisers with a conflict of interest who work for consultancy and construction companies which stand to make loads of money by carrying out the maximum of works on the Heath, there will be no appropriate solution. 

As a starting point, there should be no raising of the dams on the Vale of Health, viaduct, mixed bathing, stock, women’s bathing and bird sanctuary ponds and no felling of mature trees on any of the dams. Any works should be confined to creating a flood plain on those parts of the Heath which already look more like a park than a Heath, such as parts of Parliament Hill, and mown grass areas to the west and east of the model boating pond. 

David Lewis  Ham &  High 3 May 2012