Hampstead Heath: ‘opening up children’s lives to the riches of the natural world’

• WE at the Heath For Feet campaign were concerned to read about the proposal by the Green School Runs group, supported by the Camden Cycling Campaign, to open the Hampstead Heath for 45 minutes each weekday morning and evening to children cycling to school, (Cycling routes to school may go over Heath, November 4).

Some 12 years ago, Heath for Feet fought a campaign against a proposal from the Camden Cycling Campaign to open more paths on the Heath to cyclists.

We received overwhelming support for our stance, even among some cyclists, who shared our view that the Heath should be treasured in its own right as a refuge from urban life, offering those of all ages the freedom to walk and wander, to play and observe the natural world, without the presence of cyclists limiting freedom and safety.

Your report implies that children cycling across the Heath is one of the ways of tackling climate change. But the bigger picture is that the Heath, a unique countryside idyll, is unique in our urban lives and must not be transgressed in a way that would undermine the very thing that gives children the experience of nature, woodland and heathland which will influence them positively and hugely as they grow up.

We believe that one of the best ways to tackle the climate crisis is to open up children’s lives to the riches of the natural world so that they come to value it and will be prepared to invest future energy in trying to combat climate change. Hampstead Heath encourages such experience.

This is just one of the reasons why the Heath is so precious and must be preserved intact and in its own right, unadulterated by any form of habitual traffic such as cycling.

If children are allowed more cycling time on the Heath, even 45 minutes on school day mornings and evenings on “a small number of paths”, it will act as an overture to a flood of additional cycling activity there, which in turn will bring a significant increase in all of the negative aspects of cycling on the Heath that have so influenced the supporters of the Heath For Feet campaign.

CHRISTINE FOX
MAUREEN CLARK-DARBY
Founders, Heath For Feet