The Green Party philosophy is deeply rooted in nature. It does not view nature as one thing and human activity as something apart from this. As we say, on our philosophical basis “Like all life on earth, humankind depends upon a healthy natural environment for its survival. Yet it is human activity, more than anything else, that is causing widespread and rapid changes to the climate and damaging ecosystems and, ultimately, threatening the future of life on Earth as we currently know it.”
But what does this mean in more concrete terms? We are well over what earth systems can tolerate. Extinction rates are estimated to be running at 100 times the natural rate in the absence of humans. And we must not just reserve particular parts of earth for nature but must allow for natural and semi-natural habitats everywhere. Human dominated landscapes should be avoided to support nature – and they are not good for humans either.
Focusing on what we should do about this in the UK, we have a government target to protect 30% of the UK for nature by 2030. We are a long way from meeting this target – even with the government’s way of measuring this. We are perhaps at about 5%. We have various local targets to share land between human activities and nature – but these are mostly inadequate. Some suggest a target of 25% of every square kilometre should have natural or semi-natural habitat to allow the balance of nature with humans to be maintained – for example pollination, pest control and water quality.
In such a nature depleted country as the UK, and in an urban borough we can see such nature targets as very daunting. But this should not stop us using any influence we have to move towards them – and not be happy with just arresting the decline of nature.
We can celebrate that in the Hounslow Borough we have a Site of Scientific Interest in the Syon Tidal Meadows. While this is in good condition, it does qualify to being part of the UK’s 30% for nature by 2030. We need to campaign to keep it in good condition and that includes campaigning for nature in areas around it – such as the Park Road allotments in Isleworth and the rest of Syon Park.
There are areas of the borough which are designated as Green Belt and Metropolitan Open Land. The council continues to promote schemes to further reduce this green land. This includes many iterations of draft Hounslow Local Plans which propose to take more land away from nature. This includes Hatton Fields, which is Green Belt, which the council propose to build warehouses on. It also includes where the council planned to build a school on Brent Lea park in Brentford. Hounslow Green Party is very active in protecting these spaces by engaging in local consultations.
Another area where the Hounslow Green Party is active in engaging to protect nature is in the planning process. The Hounslow design code has a requirement for a natural border between the land and rivers. The London Plan has a requirement for 40% of new developments to be green. There is also Biodiversity Net Gain legislation that demands an increase in biodiversity in new developments. The Hounslow Green Party scrutinises planning requests and objects to non-compliance.
However, while the borough of Hounslow has a relatively good average for nature, there are still areas which are nature deserts. This is where we need to campaign most. For a start, we need pocket parks, green sustainable drainage schemes and less paving over of gardens.
Tony Firkins
21 June 2025