PRESS RELEASE: #SaveHinkseyMeadow Online Auction!
Acclaimed environmental artist Elaine Kazimierczuk has donated a beautiful painting of Hinksey Meadow to the Campaign to Save Hinksey Meadow
Oxford’s Flood Alleviation Scheme includes plans to dig a
3-mile-long channel through the meadow, putting the entire 17 acres of rare biodiverse wildflower meadow at risk. Campaigners say the Environment Agency should drop this most destructive and least effective element of the scheme and preserve Hinksey Meadow.
Online Bidding is NOW open until 11pm on 16th April.
The results of the online auction will be announced at a public meeting on the 17th of April 2023 about responding to the public consultation on the scheme.
“Hinksey Meadow” was painted on location by the renowned artist to capture the beauty of this extremely rare meadow. The online auction also features other “one of a kind” lots and experiences including prints by Chagall and Miro, visits to the UK’s only 2-star Michelin restaurant, wild salmon fishing in Scotland and more. You can now bid online for the painting up until 11 pm, 16th April 2023. The results will be announced at a live-streamed public meeting at the Assembly Rooms, Oxford Town Hall on 17th April 2023 at 7pm.
The artist, Elaine Kazimierczuk explained. "I want future generations to continue to enjoy our natural heritage. I hope my work will encourage others to make an emotional connection, as I do, to these precious places, one which inspires us to value and protect the natural world We need to celebrate these unique habitats that are the last of their kind in the wild before it’s too late."
The Campaign to Save Hinksey Meadows has overwhelming public support with over 3.500 signatures on the petition to save Hinksey Meadows.
Campaigners for Hinksey Meadows support 85% of the Oxford Flood Alleviation Scheme measures, but experts and ecologists have warned that the channel, 3 miles long and more than 250 feet wide, threatens to destroy the meadows and the West Oxford wildlife corridor without significantly reducing flood risks.
There are only 192 hectares (4 square miles, about the size of Heathrow airport) of MG4a floodplain grassland left in the UK . This grassland is one of the few habitats that combine biodiversity and flood protection with food production, in a balanced system that has lasted for hundreds of years. Leading ecologists have warned that the digging out of over 4 acres (the size of three football pitches) for the channel will cause fundamental changes in hydrology leading to the loss of the whole 17 acres of this rare meadow. While the Environment Agency say they will re-instate the meadow in another location, there is no scientific evidence for the successful translocation of Floodplain Meadows, nor any track record for translocation, which has never been achieved.
Catriona Bass of the Thames Valley Wildflower Meadow Project said. "Wildflower meadows are a unique and irreplaceable part of our cultural heritage, no less than Stonehenge and the Rollright Stones. But floodplain meadows also play a vital and complex role in our 21st century society, and not least in mitigating floods. Their loss is of national and international significance."
The auction is timed to coincide with the 2nd public consultation on the flood scheme
Oxfordshire County Council now have a 2nd consultation on the plans submitted by the Environment Agency, which runs until 20th April. https://myeplanning.oxfordshire.gov.uk/Planning/Display/MW.0027/22
The response to the previous consultation a year ago showed 91% objecting to the experimental channel.
Environmental campaigners are now calling on Secretary of State for the Environment and Rural Affairs the Rt Hon Thérèse Coffey MP to launch a public inquiry into the £176 million scheme. As well as ecologists, eminent engineers and hydrologists have criticised the OFAS for “fundamental flaws” in its design and evidence base. Detailed economic analysis by independent sustainability consultants and planners shows that the scheme remains poor value for money. In economic terms not having a channel, or a shorter one that doesn’t impact Hinksey Meadows, makes more sense than the expensive experimental channel that lacks public support.
Watch the Video on: https://vimeo.com/manage/videos/811607728
For more on Elaine Kazimierczuk: https://www.elainekazimierczuk.com/
For more on the flood scheme: www.oxfordfloodandenvironmentgroup.com
For more on Hinksey Meadows : https://www.nature-recovery-network.org/articles/endangered-hinksey-meadow/