HANDS OFF MY SAVE HAVEN

I am a person who hates noice. As a person with anxiety and as an empath I often need to get away from the noise of my neighbourhood, the technology and the toxicity of other people. Sometimes you even have to get away from the person you love most. Not because there is anything wrong with your relationship, but just because you need to have some space. Basically, a place where you can just chill for a couple of hours. I could never find a place. I was frustrated, angry and miserable, because I couldn't relax, no matter what.

Then in April 2013, something brilliant happened. I went to London to volunteer at the London Marathon and a friend told me how beautiful Richmond Park is. So I went to see for myself.  It was amazing. I couldn't believe how absolutely beautiful it was. The wildlife was delightful: deer and wild parrots. The only place I'd ever seen a parrot before was in a pet shop. To see them in the wild, loud, free and colourful, was the most wonderful thing.

After walking around here for at least two hours and seeing the protected view over Richmond Hill, I realised something. I felt more relaxed and happy than I had in a very long time. I thought it was a fluke until I went back a few weeks later and felt exactly the same. I felt fabulous. I had finally found my safe haven, that place I could run too if I need to escape or calm down. I loved it and I still do. I have walked and run in Richmond Park and enjoyed every second of it. I haven't cycled there, but I will be next time. I am so happy when I am there. That's the good news.

Now for the bad news. The third runway at Heathrow has been given the go ahead. And they are also considering putting plane routes over Richmond Park, effectively killing the tranquility. Current airline routes are not routed over the park and I don't know why this has to change.

On one of the newly released maps of flight plans, aircraft will be flying as low as 1,000 feet. Forty-seven arrivals and between seventeen and forty-seven departures an hour wll fly right over the park, most of them below 2, 000 feet. At the moment there are forty-eight thousand flights a year, which is already way too many. Heathrow wants to add twenty-five thousand flights by 2021 and that's before the runway is even built!

This is horrid. I've finally found a place where I can relax and the goverment wants to ruin it.

The aircraft will be noisy, cause pollution, And it will upset the people from all over the world who enjoy the park. A lot of people use Richmond Park for the same reason I do:  as a save haven to be quiet, recharge and to think.

Not only am I sensitive to noise, but so are a lot of the nocturnal animals that live happily in all the Royal parks: Bats, owls, foxes, deer, rabbit and many birds and insects. All live nocturnally and all have sensitve hearing, The aircraft could really damage that. There has for a long time being a restriction on the time aircraft can take off or depart from the airport. No aircraft are allowed to take off between midnight and five in the morning so the residents in surrounding areas can get to sleep, though for an insomniac like me, it doesn't make a lot of difference. There are plans to abolish this, which would make things even worse.

Whoever had the idea to up the number of flights and to route them over Richmond is an idiot. It has been a place of quietness, a place to exercise and relax since the formation of the Friends of Richmond Park (of which I'm a proud member) in 1961. To pollute it with aircraft would be insane. Shame on Chris Grayling for approving the third runway in the first place. I hope the consultation works in the park's favour and the whole idea is scrapped. Not just for people like me who use it as a refuge from noise, but for everyone: the athletes, the wildlife, the visitors, everyone.

If you want to have a third runway, fine. But don't fly planes over Richmond Park.

LEAVE MY SAFE HAVEN ALONE!!

The View From Richmond Hill

Beside the Thames

50th Parkrun in Richmond Park