At the March Sunday Market, we met up with first prize winner Natasha Thakkar and third prize winner Helen Nolan and later met second prize winner Sheila Green. Congratulations to our winners for this quarter!
The letter is regarding the future of the Green Belt. CVRP would be grateful if everyone can continue to mention the Colne Valley Regional Park to Councillors in your conversations about the Green Belt, biodiversity, paths, farming, rivers and the landscape.
Over recent weeks, local residents have grouped together to press the Three Rivers Council for speedier action in reopening Ebury Play Area by the Aquadrome. A WhatsApp group supported by RDRA co-ordinated strong turnout at council forums and on social media to signal that residents wanted no further delay and that continued excuses were unacceptable.
Work is now underway at Ebury Play area with a target reopening date of 8th July. Furthermore, TRDC are now providing regular updates to residents on the progress of the work – something that hadn’t started to happen until residents came together.
This shows the power of collective action in our community: by coming together from all different backgrounds and having a unified voice, we can effect a change in behaviour from those elected to deliver for our community.
Our work has just begun to make Ricky a much better place to live in and hold our elected representatives accountable.
Message received 24/03/26 – via email.
I wanted to ask whether the RDRA plans to make any comment regarding the recent statement in the Lib Dem Focus leaflet about the removal of knotweed from the Ebury Way play area.
While the leaflet suggests that progress is now being made, it seems to gloss over the considerable delays and the role that local pressure, including the RDRA’s planned protest march, played in prompting action. Many residents will be aware that this issue has taken a long time to reach this stage, with repeated references to legal and contractual complications.
Given the RDRA’s involvement and advocacy on this matter, I think it would be helpful for residents if there were some acknowledgement of the full context, including how progress was ultimately achieved.
I would be interested to hear your thoughts on whether the association intends to address this publicly.
RDRA response:
Thank you for your email and for sharing your thoughts regarding the Lib Dem Focus leaflet and the ongoing situation at the Ebury Way play area. At present, the RDRA does not have any plans to make a public comment about the leaflet or the progress reported. However, we will continue to monitor developments closely and remain engaged with the issue to ensure that residents’ concerns are properly addressed.
We appreciate your interest in the matter and will keep the residents updated should there be any significant changes or further actions required.
This is due to work now commencing – we’re all looking forward to the Play Area being completed and open in 16 weeks!
Cllr. Mike Sims, RDRA Committee Member & Independent TRDC Councillor, and Paul Harding, local resident who recently gave an excellent speech to the council, are pictured visiting the Woodland Path which has been closed since March 2024.
Mike has been instrumental in getting the path noticed, re-assessed & we hope it opens soon!
Read the Watford Observer article:
https://www.watfordobserver.co.uk/leisure/25948582.popular-walking-route-soon-reopen-two-years/
Finally, some action! The 16-week remediation programme has started at long last.
Due to the inaction of the Three Rivers Council regarding the reopening of the Ebury Play Area, closed since March 2024, there will be a Demonstration March starting at the TRDC car park at 11am and ending up at the Play Area.
All are welcome to join – bring protest signs, placards and banners!
Councillors say work has already started but we see no evidence of earthworks happening so we’re joining this Demonstration March in the hope it draws more attention to this issue. Worth noting that Councillors who presided over Ebury Play Area decisions do not live in Rickmansworth and it’s hard to say whether they have personally visited the site since it was abandoned two years ago to check on any progress.
RDRA presented our Ebury Play Area petition to the Climate Change and Leisure Committee on 11th March. We asked Paul Harding to speak on this topic for 3 minutes as he is a nearby resident – his excellent speech is below. After his speech, the Committee lead responded by saying that construction work will commence at the end of the month, before Easter. But in a previous meeting another Councillor said that “boots on the ground” work started last week! All residents at the meeting walked out in disgust because the Committee lead didn’t allow a point of order or discussion.
There is a rumour of a demonstration happening on 28th March starting at the Council offices at and ending at the Play Area – we’ll keep you posted if we find out more information!
“While studying for a post graduate business qualification, I learned a phrase that has stayed with me ever since; behaviour is an observable function.
“With that in mind, I observe the absence of any work in the Ebury Playground since spring last year to demonstrate the council’s inept management of the playground refurbishment project. Although yes, I did see two people in there this afternoon, with their clipboards, hiviz jackets, over shoes and hard hats – but they did no actual work; merely observed and recorded what has lain there – or grown there – for almost a year now. The last time I recall seeing anyone in there was the same day that a TRDC public meeting was to be held that evening in this room.
“To be absolutely clear; I use the word “inept” here because it most closely meets the level of skill observed by TRDC’s behaviour in this matter; synonyms are – clumsy, incompetent, ineffective, inadequate. You will no doubt be aware that, with the arrival of spring, those weeds that were imported to the Ebury Playground a year ago will soon be seeding, germinating, sprouting and spreading. I understand that the recommended remedy to NNIS such as Japanese knotweed is to either treat with pesticide or mechanical removal. I further understand that the contractor has apparently offered removal, but TRDC has rejected this and said it wants to have the weeds treated. Has it escaped TRDC’s notice that this is a children’s playground?
“We, your public, residents and electors are fed up with asking you to do the right thing; you seem incapable of responding without dithering, obfuscation and avoiding the issues. When the forthcoming local government reorganisation is settled, yours will be the worst possible legacy in the history of this town.”
Paul Harding 11/3/26
Dear Gagan,
Thank you for your letter of 4th March. We note, however, that you have not addressed the central questions put to you in our open letter of 2nd March: why did you undermine the draft Plan by criticising the evidence that supports it and why did you publicly support the Housing Minister’s decision to block public consultation on the draft Local Plan? It should be noted that the Housing Minister did not say TRDC’s Local Plan evidence is inadequate; he simply said he wanted to read it, to see if it justifies the draft plan.
More concerning still is what happened after you received our letter. You had the opportunity to raise Three Rivers at Prime Ministers Question Time and rather than use it to robustly defend our Green Belt, to demand that the Minister reverse his intervention and to back the evidence supporting the Plan, you seemed to be more interested in scoring a party-political point You state that you have “consistently defended our Green Belt.” We would respectfully point out that the single most effective defence of the Green Belt is a sound, adopted Local Plan and you have just backed the Minister’s decision to prevent one from reaching public consultation. Without a plan proceeding to examination and adoption, the district remains exposed to exactly the speculative development you say you oppose. Your position is contradictory: how you can you claim to defend the Green Belt while supporting the action that leaves it most vulnerable.
You claim the plan “lacked the evidence required to be deemed sound.” As we set out in our original letter, this does not withstand scrutiny. Consider the Stage 4 Green Belt Review recently undertaken at considerable cost which analyses the Green Belt under the new rules. This was prepared by one of the most highly regarded major consultancies, with recognised experience in this area. This review clearly identifies that development in several areas of the District’s Green Belt would fundamentally undermine the purposes of the wider Green Belt and therefore must be protected from development.
Every week without a Local Plan increases the risk to our Green Belt. Since your first question in the House on 23rd February, a new application to build 333 homes on Catlips Farm in Chorleywood has been published and a new development on the Horsefield in Bedmond has been announced. Speculative applications are flooding in across the district precisely because there is no adopted plan in place. Your constituents are paying the price for this delay, and your support for the Minister’s intervention is making it worse.
We are not naïve. With local elections approaching in May, we understand that the Local Plan risks being used as a political football by parties of all colours. However, when it comes to this issue, we would urge everyone to put party interests aside and all get to together behind it. The future of our Green Belt and the communities we live in is too important to be reduced to electioneering. We would urge you and all elected representatives to treat this issue with the seriousness and honesty it demands.
We repeat our call: please withdraw your support for the Minister’s action and publicly back the draft plan proceeding to consultation and examination without further delay. That is how you defend the Green Belt, not by blocking the very process designed to protect it.
The Three Rivers Joint Residents’ Association represents thousands of residents across every part of the district. Since your first intervention in the Houses of Parliament on this we have asked repeatedly to meet with you about this vital issue, and we again offer to meet with you at your earliest convenience to brief you fully on the plan and on why Residents’ Associations across Three Rivers are united in calling for it to proceed. We trust you will not decline.
Yours sincerely,
Barry Grant
Chair – Three Rivers Joint Residents’ Association
First open letter to Gagan Mohindra MP from Three Rivers Joint Residents’ Association (JRA)
Full letter from Housing and Planning Minister Matthew Pennycook here: IMPORTANT: Local Plan Reg 19 Suspended
Response to Housing Minister letter from Independent District Councillor Rue Grewal