List of nature reserves in the London Borough of Barnet

Beech Hill Lake in Monken Hadley Common
Beech Hill Lake in Monken Hadley Common

The London Borough of Barnet, on the northern outskirts of London, is mainly residential, but it has large areas of green space and farmland. The spread of suburban development into the countryside was halted by the designation of a statutory Green Belt around London after the Second World War, and almost one third of Barnet's area of 8,663 hectares (21,410 acres) is Green Belt. Without this control, Barnet would be very different today, and this list of nature reserves would be much shorter.[1]

Most of Barnet lies over London Clay, which is poor for agriculture, and open land is mainly used for activities such as horse grazing, playing fields, parks and golf courses. Features of the traditional agricultural landscape have survived, such as old hedgerows, ancient trees and areas of herb-rich grassland. Some hay meadows have a large diversity of wild flowers, and the London Ecology Unit (LEU)[a] described them as one of Barnet's most important ecological assets.[4]

Barnet has large areas with designations intended to protect them from "inappropriate development", and to "provide the strongest protection for the preservation of Barnet's green and natural open spaces". As well as 2,466 hectares (6,090 acres) of Green Belt, Barnet has another 690 hectares (1,700 acres) of Metropolitan Open Land, which receive a similar level of protection. Watling Chase Community Forest[b] covers 72 square miles (190 km2), extending north and west from Totteridge into south Hertfordshire.[6]

In 1992 Barnet Council commissioned the LEU to carry out a survey of wildlife habitats in the borough, which looked at green sites covering 4,055 hectares (10,020 acres), 45% of the borough. In 1997 the LEU published Nature Conservation in Barnet, which described 67 Sites of Importance for Nature Conservation (SINCs).[7][8] This formed the basis of Barnet's nature conservation policies in its 2006 Unitary Development Plan, designated as "a material planning consideration" to be used as "non-statutory guidance".[9] The table below lists SINCs described in Nature Conservation in Barnet.[10][c] SINCs do not have statutory protection, but some sites are also wholly or partly designated as Sites of Special Scientific Interest[d] or local nature reserves,[e] which do have statutory protection.[18] According to a report of the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, 39% of Barnet's SINCs were "in positive conservation management" in 2009–10. Barnet Council did not supply figures for 2010–11, 2011–12 or 2012–13.[19]

  1. ^ Hewlett, pp. 2, 11–13
  2. ^ "Activism for Change". London Wildlife Trust. Archived from the original on 25 October 2012. Retrieved 16 July 2013.
  3. ^ Building Green: A guide to using plants on roofs, walls and pavements (PDF). Mayor of London. 2004. ISBN 1-85261-637-7. Archived from the original (PDF) on 16 August 2012. Retrieved 16 July 2013.
  4. ^ Hewlett, pp. 2–3, 6
  5. ^ "About England's Community Forests". England’s Community Forests. Archived from the original on 17 November 2015. Retrieved 14 November 2015.
  6. ^ Barnet Unitary Development Plan, Chapter 5, pp. 65–67, 83–84
  7. ^ "Sites of Importance for Nature Conservation". Mayor of London. Archived from the original on 19 January 2013. Retrieved 24 February 2013.
  8. ^ Hewlett, pp. 14–15
  9. ^ Barnet Unitary Development Plan, Chapter 5, p. 79
  10. ^ Hewlett et al, Nature Conservation in Barnet
  11. ^ "Budget and Performance Overview and Scrutiny Committee: Number of New Dwellings Started on Regeneration Schemes – Performance Update" (PDF). London Borough of Barnet. 15 March 2012. Archived (PDF) from the original on 5 March 2016. Retrieved 15 February 2013.
  12. ^ "Grahame Park". Greenspace Information for Greater London. 2013. Archived from the original on 18 December 2014. Retrieved 16 August 2013.
  13. ^ Johnson, Boris (25 January 2012). "London Wildweb site". The London Assembly. Archived from the original on 17 September 2013. Retrieved 17 September 2013.
  14. ^ "iGiGL the data portal of Greenspace Information for London". Greenspace Information for Greater London. 2013. Archived from the original on 14 January 2014. Retrieved 14 August 2013.
  15. ^ "Sites of Special Scientific Interest, Search results for Greater London". Natural England. Archived from the original on 24 October 2012. Retrieved 24 February 2013.
  16. ^ Hewlett, p. 53
  17. ^ "Local Nature Reserves, Search Results for Greater London". Natural England. Archived from the original on 27 September 2013. Retrieved 24 February 2013.
  18. ^ "Local Nature Reserves". Natural England. Archived from the original on 23 September 2013. Retrieved 22 September 2013.
  19. ^ "Nature Conservation: Local Sites in Positive Conservation Management in England, 2008/9 to 2012/13". Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs. Archived from the original on 19 February 2014. Retrieved 2 February 2014.


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