Published: 12 February, 2014
by DAN CARRIER
>>NEW JOURNAL COMMENT: 'Heavy rainfall highlights how well the Heath functions' (click here)

ACTOR Robert Powell has told how he has been left “bewildered” by  controversial plans to spend £15million on flood defences at Hampstead Heath.

The Jesus Of Nazareth film star, whose Highgate home is close to the Heath ponds, aired his views in a short film for the Protect Our Ponds campaign.

He said: “We have just had floods across the country and torrential rain, and the Heath is muddy beyond belief. The ponds are fine. They are not showing any overtopping. It works, so why muck about? Why build these nonsensical dams?”

His intervention came as the protest against the dams project, ordered by the City of London, the managers of the Heath, grew stronger. 

On Monday night, a meeting organised United Swimmers Association was held at the United Reform Church, in Pond Square, Highgate. 

More than 200 people heard statements from the Kenwood Ladies’ Pond Association, The Men’s Pond Association and the Mixed Ponds Association. Each group laid out their case against the project.

Mr Powell said: “I am bewildered by any suggestions the ponds are unsafe. They have been here for 300 years and there has not been one incident. There is no legal obligation, either. That is something that has been put around and is just not true. In fact, they have a legal obligation to keep the Heath as it is.”

The City say that due to increasingly severe weather, engineers’ advice suggests the dams could fail and flood homes in Gospel Oak, Dartmouth Park and South End Green. If it presses ahead with the project, however, swimmers warned at Monday’s meeting that they will spearhead a campaign to force Camden Council to block the scheme.

Under the plans, banks between the ponds will be raised by up to two metres. The Town Hall must grant permission for that to happen, however, so if a planned legal challenge by the Heath and Hampstead Society fails, the council’s planning committee will face pressure from swimmers to kill the scheme. The meeting also heard an update from Heath and Hampstead Society chairman Tony Hillier, whose group plans to go to court to clarify new legislation that the City say means they have no choice but to build new and higher dams. 

Mary Cane, of the Kenwood Ladies’ Pond Association, said: “There is an alternative motive in everything the City does. Is it something to do with them coming back to introduce charges [at the swimming ponds]? We must stand together, show solidarity and passion. We need a proper debate and judicial clarification.”

Men’s Pond Association chairman Geoff Goss told the meeting that Camden Council and Thames Water must be brought into the debate as the real risk of flooding comes from water running off the Heath into drains that are no longer fit for purpose. He said the amount of rain that would have to fall to mean the ponds bursting their banks was such a large amount, homes to the south of the Heath would already be in trouble. 

Mr Goss added: “This is a drainage and gully problem.”

Rachel Douglas, of the Mixed Ponds Association, said: “We need to ask, what is necessary? We have been given figures on potential loss of life if the worst happens, but no information on things like early warning systems.”

The meeting passed three resolutions: it called on the City to abide by the 1871 Act that protects the Heath; to seek a joint judicial ruling with the Heath and Hampstead Society to see if the work is legally necessary; while the third resolution said the City’s consultation on the scheme has been flawed and should not be pursued in its current form.