‘The Heath is by law about freedom and happiness’

• WE fast approach June 29, the 150th anniversary of the day and month of the enactment of the 1871 Hampstead Heath Act.

Having been purchased by “crowdfunding”, the Heath was by law then free of cost; freely available for the leisure of all citizens, particularly for the most working, hard pressed of us.

The Heath is by law about freedom and happiness, a wise and wonderful gift to London and the country. As we now sadly know, part of that freedom has been cancelled.

In justification of that, the City of London Corporation claimed that it could not afford the cost. That was surprising given that it had charitable funds of over £2billion at its disposal for charitable purposes.

It is even more so, now we know it has, in addition, “on the quiet”, had millions of pounds of government taxation money given specifically to maintain the Heath as a free and open space, known as the “City Offset.”

How many millions? Well, according to the corporation’s own statistics around £155million over the 22 years of its management; £7million a year on average, well in excess of the average annual cost of managing the Heath on behalf of London and Londoners.

For long, that fact was kept in the dark. Now that it is out in the open, there is surely no reason why freedom to individually to swim with the duck and fish should not be restored.

The Heath, of all places, is not meant to be a money making machine to subsidise among other things City feasts and arguably wasteful use of scarce resources of an arguably non-charitable nature.

ROBERT SUTHERLAND SMITH
Widecombe Way, N2