Illustration by John Sadler www.johnsadlerillustration.com

• I LIVE at Sidney Boyd Court, a small Camden housing estate in West Hampstead of 80 households.

There are no private gardens but communal space. There is one south-facing lawn where residents like to sit on sunny days and enjoy the sunshine and the air.

However, without a word of consultation, Camden’s gardening department has left this lawn and many other small pieces of land go to meadow.

The grass on the lawn is now about a metre high. This has meant during the lovely weather we’ve enjoyed residents couldn’t sit out and enjoy outdoor space.

This is at a time of pandemic when we are being urged to meet outdoors. Bees and butterflies are being favoured over people.

There are other patches of land on the estate that have been left to go to meadow. Some of this is acceptable but presents another problem, the estate looks unsightly in a way no private household or block of flats would tolerate.

We have just had a redecoration to maintain the buildings. This abandonment of the grounds to meadow takes away from the pleasure of this upgrading of the buildings.

I invite the council leader and grounds maintenance officials to come and see what their meadow policy has left us and urge them to consider the wellbeing of people who are also important to the ecosystem.

It is important to support the bee, butterfly and insect populations but I think we at Sidney Boyd Court are contributing disproportionately to this endeavour.

MARY RYAN
Sidney Boyd Court, NW6