Sailing, kayaking and paddleboarding are among the activities being lined up for the site in Harefield
A lake in West London regarded as important for nature and science will have a replacement watersports and activity centre built around it after the previous facility was shut by HS2.
The new Hillingdon Watersports Facility and Activity Centre will be an 80-hectare site at Broadwater Lake in Harefield. The facility will serve as a direct replacement for the former Hillingdon Outdoor Activity Centre which was forced to close down in 2020.
Councillors voted unanimously in favour of the plans on April 21. The former centre’s Dews Lane site was closed to allow for the construction of the HS2 viaduct – needed for the high speed railway to pass through the area – which has now been completed. However the HS2 viaduct has cut the lake at Dew’s Lane in half, meaning the lake has lost 50 per cent of its water surface area.
The facility will be heavily geared towards young people, Special Educational Needs (SEN) groups, Pupil Referral Units, Scouts, Guides and families. It will also become the permanent home of the Broadwater Sailing Club.
Hillingdon Council considered 71 lakes within a 20-kilometer radius when searching for a replacement for the former activity centre. Denham Quarry was initially considered and even approved in 2017, however it was later abandoned due to spiralling costs.
The project is funded by £26.5 million from a HS2 funding agreement. The developer is also legally obligated to pay £177,800 for active travel measures, a £42,821 carbon offset contribution, and £66,736 towards an employment training scheme.
Broadwater Lake is a former quarry on green belt land which is now a designated Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI). SSSIs are designed to protect biodiversity and are a formal conservation designation used to protect areas for their wildlife.
Despite this, the development is allowed to go ahead because it demonstrates that the significant social and community benefits outweigh any ecological harm. The design avoids harm by focusing the buildings on the hardstanding which is left over from the site’s former use as a gravel processing plant.
Hillingdon Council says that as the site has been abandoned and unmanaged for decades, its ecology is in “significant decline and wildlife is moving to more suitable habitats elsewhere”, with better food resources and fewer predators. The council say the proposals would reverse the decline and significantly improve the biodiversity of the site and also reduce invasive species, such as signal crayfish.
To protect wildlife, the undisturbed “quiet water” bird refuge in the south west of the lake is being expanded from 3.42 hectares to 14.72 hectares and will be protected by “no-sail” limits. Both Natural England and the Environment Agency initially objected to the project over fears of significant ecological harm to the SSSI, but following a redesign, both withdrew their objections.
The site will offer a wide range of educational and recreational activities, This includes dinghy sailing, kayaking, canoeing, dragon boating, stand up paddle boarding, raft building, windsurfing and angling.
Land based activities on offer include fencing, team building, birdwatching, camping, pond dipping, orchard foraging and an artificial caving system.
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