Actor says it is ‘more important than ever’ to safeguard city’s parks as report finds more than 50 are at risk
Dame Judi Dench has called for greater protections for London’s parks and green spaces, as research finds more than 50 of the city’s parks are at risk from development.
The Oscar-winning actor has long loved trees, and in 2017 fronted a BBC documentary about her love for them. She plants a tree every time a close friend or relative dies, including for her late husband, Michael Williams, who died in 2001, and the actor Natasha Richardson, who was killed in a skiing accident in 2009, and one for her brother Jeffery Dench, who died in 2014.
She has said: “I think of my trees as part of my extended family. It’s something living that goes on. You don’t remember them and stop; you remember them and the memory goes on and gets more wonderful.”
New research by CPRE London has found that at least nine parks, eight playing fields and eight nature reserves in London are at risk, including Whitewebbs Park in Enfield, Wimbledon Park, and Green Dale Fields in Southwark. After campaigning by CPRE London and local groups, six green spaces were saved last year, including the pitches at Finsbury leisure centre in Islington, but seven were lost, including Crossness nature reserve in Bexley.
