July 2017 - Burnt Ash Road, Lee

At Lewisham People's Day Rebecca met Angela and her brother, who live in Lee and had been lobbying Lewisham Council to protect a large swift colony on Burnt Ash Road that was under threat during building refurbishment work.

"Raising awareness about swifts yesterday at Lewisham People's Day. It was a great day with lots of interest and was incredibly hot! We met a marvellous woman called Angela and her brother who told us how the council recently put up scaffolding on a building with a large swift colony in Burnt Ash Road in Lee and the swifts couldn't get into their nests to their chicks. She gave the swifts a voice and got the works stopped and the scaffolding taken down and swift harmony has been restored. But not for long as when the swifts go all the holes will be blocked up. I will visit the site this week and we will make it a priority to save this swift colony by campaigning to get boxes up where any holes are lost."

"Last night we went to visit Angela in Burnt Ash Road to survey the site she informed us about where roof repairs are threatening a very large swift colony. I counted the largest amount of swifts I think I've ever seen nesting in just one building (at least 5 nests but Angela says there are many more!). She has fought and fought to get the netting and scaffolding down but fell on deaf ears. In the end it was the scaffolding and construction company who took her seriously and stopped the works, cut the top netting off at the back and removed the top planks. The Swifts can now get in and out of their nests but with some difficulty as the scaffold is still up. Also the nets at the front and side of the building are still up and any nest holes there are still blocked. The swift fledglings will certainly struggle to negotiate the scaffold when it comes to leaving the nest and many may ground. Other buildings in the road where swifts may have been nesting are totally covered in scaffolding and netting and any young inside would have already died. This is precisely why we are loosing our swifts. Surprisingly it is Lewisham Homes and the Breyer Group who are carrying out these works. In a way this is a good thing as we have already worked with them re swifts in the past and I have the details for the necessary people to contact. We would like the all of the top part of the scaffolding and netting taken down to protect the young who will be leaving in a few weeks. Works will go ahead when the swifts leave and all their nest holes will be blocked up. We hope to work with Breyer Group to replace all lost nest sites with the equal amount of boxes if not more. I am confident they will work with us to do this given their past enthusiasm to put boxes up on Lewisham Homes properties! Fingers crossed. If not I suppose a petition? Well done to Angela for having achieved what she has so far."