The main reasons Dacres Wood and Garthorne Road Nature reserves are not open to the public is that they are nature reserves rather than human habitats. Both sites back onto the railway line and Dacres Wood contains a pond. These aspects of the sites mean that they are potentially dangerous. Furthermore when Dacres Wood was open, it was used as a dump by some people and this can be a disaster for any natural habitat.
Dacres Wood is now open at least once a month but relies on volunteers to manage access. Devonshire Road is open at least twice a month in the summer but is a larger site and has more volunteers. Garthorne Road Nature Reserve is rarely open to the public and as far as I'm aware has no volunteers to do anything.
If you do want to visit a nature reserve, any time of year, there is the Horniman Nature Reserve at the bottom of the park, with a pond at the end which is carefully fenced off. Even better is Sydenham Woods which is a massive area of woodland for Inner London and great at this time of year if you like mud!
Is this a better place for our posts, Michael?
Furthermore when Dacres Wood was open, it was used as a dump by some people and this can be a disaster for any natural habitat.
Funnily enough when the public had access to the site, there were watchful eyes. I cannot remember any dumping. Shortly after the site was closed, we had the lovely incident of the tins of paint being poured in the pond.
Those up to no good like that pest Shackleton, will always find a way into a site like this. The wrong people are being excluded.
Sydenham woods is open to the public 24/7. I do not read of it being a used as a dumping site or a getaway route for burglars. Its pond and the one on the Horniman reserve are not considered dangerous to the public.
they are nature reserves rather than human habitats
A few humans visiting these sites will not do much harm. The humans that the 2 reserves this side of the tracks will be destroyed by, are the ones driving the bulldozers.
If very few local people have actually visited the sites, especially as children, then I'd say it is only a matter of time before local indifference and the pressure for housing means the land is sold.
Maybe that is the idea.
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