Unfinished work: Viridor have been promising the conduct restoration work at Beddington Farmlands since 2005

Ahead of an expected announcement by Valencia about the overdue Beddington Farmlands restoration, Inside Sutton has uncovered attempts by the company to wriggle out of costly environmental and social obligations

Extinct: a juvenile spotted redshank, a species that can no longer be found at Beddington

Almost 20 years ago, when multinational waste giant Viridor first arrived in this corner of south London, they began a planning process that saw them agree to a whole range of environmental conditions to restore and improve the habitats of the Beddington Farmlands nature reserve.

It ultimately led to them being granted permission to operate the polluting waste incinerator alongside the site, and seal a £1billion contract with four councils, including Sutton and Croydon.

The 400-acre Farmlands site, which includes former landfill and sewage ponds, should have been fully restored just about now (the deadline is December 31, 2023). Yet according to naturalists who have been monitoring wildlife on the site, Viridor delays and mismanagement of the Farmlands have already led to the extinction of on the site of “target species” such as tree sparrow, redshank and yellow wagtail.

“Every day of delay moves us closer to extinction of the lapwings, the last remaining target species on site,” according to one expert.

Beddington Farmlands is a key section of the Wandle Valley Regional Park, classified as a site of importance for nature conservation.

Viridor’s promises to help turn the site into a thriving habitat for wildlife have long been forgotten or broken.

Viridor did some work, but then sold off the whole of the Farmlands and landfill to Valencia Waste Management in March 2022. Valencia wasted no time themselves by doing absolutely nothing to advance the restoration, claiming the carefully composed plans were essentially unworkable.

Sutton Council, responsible for enforcing the planning conditions, had always avoided direct conflict with Viridor, possibly due to its overly-close relationship with the company. This appears to have continued with Valencia.

Broken promises: this is how the nature reserve at Beddington Farmlands was initially planned. Viridor/Valencia have been slow at implementing it

So it came as something of a surprise when, last June, at the meeting of Sutton’s housing, economy and business committee, or “HEB”, Andy Webber, the council’s head of development management, said that Sutton would begin enforcement proceedings against Valencia, using a legal injunction if necessary.

In the six months since, no action has been taken.

Inside Sutton understands that lawyers did get involved, and a decision was made not to take the long overdue enforcement action.

But in August, Valencia applied to Sutton planning for a determination, a ruling, that no Environmental Impact Assessment would be necessary for their anticipated revised proposals for the long-awaited restoration work.

For the local authority to not conduct a EIA on a major environmental project in its area would seem to be off, to the point of extraordinary. But that’s what Valencia wanted.

In Valencia’s request for determination, they gave away the fact that there are more than 80 acres where they want effectively to abandon the agreed remedial work, and remove or change wet and acid grasslands, heathland, wet woodland and reedbeds. They claimed these restorations were “not feasible”.

Another of Valencia’s proposed solutions was to increase the number of reservoirs, despite the potential damage caused to rare species.

For once, Sutton Council, in the form of Webber, sent Valencia away with a flea in their ear. An EIA was required and Valencia’s proposals were roundly condemned as lacking any detail and likely to have an adverse effect on the target species and habitat restoration. Valencia’s concerns were dismissed as “unsubstantiated”. Webber’s frustration and anger were palpaple in his letter.

There are also serious issues with Valencia’s cavalier proposals to divert water sources without proper investigations, and their possible detrimental effects on the River Wandle, a rare and precious chalk stream which runs from Croydon and on to the Thames.

Birdman of Beddington: Peter Alfrey leading a community tour of the Farmlands

Inside Sutton talked to Peter Alfrey, the “Birdman of Beddington”, who has an encyclopaedic knowledge of the Farmlands, its habitats and species, and the painful history of the failed restoration.

“Clearly the whole thing is scandalous and an attempt by Valencia to wriggle out of their environmental and social obligations,” Alfrey said.

“It’s complete nonsense that the habitats they are obliged to create are not feasible. Acid grassland has been created on landfill on the adjacent site of Mitcham Common, so it clearly is feasible but, yes, very expensive.”

Wet grassland habitats and heathlands – which Valencia claim are impossible to achieve – have in fact already been created on the Beddington site, and they have been created from scratch at other locations such as the flagship London Wetland Centre.

“There are hydrological challenges that have been overcome with great expertise,” Alfrey said.

“The correct water management to achieve wet grassland objectives would involve a large investment involving reservoirs, water level management infrastructure and complex modelling and management strategies to account for climate resilience and the lowering of the local water table. Again it will be technically possible, but will be expensive.

“So I guess what they mean by ‘not feasible’ is ‘too expensive’.”

£1bn business: Viridor is making huge profits from the Beddington incinerator, but has failed to fulfil its planning conditions

The creation of wet woodland is also eminently achievable with the correct water management infrastructure in place, while reedbeds require winter maintenance to make them ecologically significant to target species such as bitterns.

Reedbeds have been successfully planted on site (“I planted them on the south lake,” Alfrey said) and they occur naturally across the Farmlands. “This is one of the most ridiculously cheap and easy habitats to create and easiest to maintain, and they are trying to cop out of that too. That is literally insane,” Alfrey said.

“Not one of these habitats is doomed. Valencia are just trying to get out of paying for them. With new green financing initiatives available to corporations in the post EU-exit Environmental and Agricultural Bills, carbon credit markets, the biodiversity net gain framework, natural capital stock, the net zero framework and so on, there are lots of new financing opportunities that can assist in them paying for this work.

“So there is less excuse than ever for Valencia not to do the works in the original restoration plans.”

The failures of Viridor and latterly Valencia in completing the restoration have severely damaged the ecological profile of the Farmlands. “Every day they delay on creating these habitats is another day closer to the extinction of the lapwings, which are the last remaining target species on site,” according to Alfrey. “All the other species such as tree sparrow, redshank, yellow wagtail and many others are already locally extinct.

“We do not have time on our side. But we need to work with and persuade Valencia to do the right thing and fulfil their obligations.”

There are potential ways forward. “If acid grassland and heathland are swapped for species of rich grassland, and wet grassland swapped for wader scrape, then Valencia will save tens of millions of pounds and it will still be good for wildlife.”

Time’s running out: lapwings are a Beddington ‘target species’ that is under threat because of coporate neglect

The issue comes down to what Viridor, and later Valencia, agreed to spend on the site, in return for the £1billion planning advantages they have been reaping for several years.

“At the end of the day, they need to spend a lot on this,” Alfrey said. “With a practical solution we will all win, at corporate, council and local community levels. But we must fight for it.

“I strongly suspect this fight in the near future, with new proposals from Valencia, will be enormous in its impact.”

There’s a strong suspicion that Sutton is back-pedalling on any enforcement action because Valencia hold the keys to the landfill gas engines which are still powering SDEN, the council’s flaky decentralised energy network at New Mill Quarter in Hackbridge.

What of Valencia’s attempt to avoid an environmental impact assessment?

“It’s absurd to suggest Valencia won’t need an EIA, especially considering we don’t know their full proposals,” Alfrey said.

Valencia will be making an announcement on its proposals for the restoration of the Beddington Farmlands tomorrow (at 3.30pm) with a presentation to the Beddington conservation and access management committee and to the conservation science group (CSG).

This will be followed at 5.30pm by an under-publicised online presentation to the community (to request an invitation to this briefing, readers should email enquiries@valencia.co.uk).

A brief public consultation will then run over Christmas, until January 5.

A website to comment on the proposals goes live from December 13 at www.beddingtonfarmlands.co.uk

As Alfrey said: “This coreland of the Wandle Valley Regional Park is ecologically and environmentally crucial to the future of one of the largest nature reserves in London. We have one last chance to get it right.”

Read more:Viridor’s charge sheet: incinerator operator’s eco-vandalism
Reeds more (geddit?): CPRE tells Mayo to make Farmlands a new public park
Read more: It’s time to re-set our approach to Beddington’s nature reserve

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