The River Quaggy Trail
​
​
The Friends of Quaggy Playing Fields fully support The Quaggy River Trail. This trail is a plan to link Lee Green town centre with Sutcliffe Park by following the River Quaggy whilst giving maximum access to the riverside environment. It will pass directly through the Quaggy Playing Fields area and, although a separate project, is integral to to the Playing Fields initiative.
​
This section of the trail is part of a larger walk that continues west to Lewisham to join the Waterlink Way to, and south to Chinbrook Meadows along the River Quaggy. This latter section is part of a separate ‘Quaggy Links’ project currently in progress and is coordinated by Thames 21 in partnership with the Environment Agency and local groups.
Benefits to local people
-
Celebrate and raise awareness of the natural river course, its wildlife and topography
-
Protect and improve the flood plain and the natural environment of the River Quaggy
-
Public health - take pedestrians and cyclists off main roads, away from vehicle emissions and road dangers
-
Public Health – create increased opportunities for walking/cycling
-
Increased connectivity between Kidbrooke and Lee Green so that residents of both can use each other’s shops, community centres, playgrounds, sports centre, pubs, supermarket etc, increasing community cohesion. As Lee Green is regenerated and Kidbrooke grows there will be more and other reasons to travel between them yet current walking and cycling connectivity is poor – along the A20.
-
A new strategic route for Greenwich akin to the Waterlink Way in Lewisham. The Waterlink Way has opened up access beside the Rivers Pool and Ravensboure from Sydenham / Bell Green to Catford, Ladywell, Lewisham to Deptford. We would like to see the Quaggy Trail open up access beside the River Quaggy in Royal Borough of Greenwich from Lee to Sutcliffe Park to Colfes School Fields to Eltham School Fields, then back into Lewisham Borough to Chinbrook Meadows in Grove Park. Sutcliffe Park and Chinbrook Meadows have benefitted from deculverting of the river in the recent past and the stretch of the river in Colfes Fields is an existing 1km deculverting proposed project in the Ravensbourne Catchment Plan (1st line of table, page 34). The stretch of the river besides Eltham School fields is already a public footpath. Properly restored, this stretch of the river could involve enhancing the Green Chain Walk. It could also help make the case to be part of TfL's Capital Ring. The trail could help open up access for people in the areas of Middle Park and Horn Park which are bound by busy roads and have experience high levels of deprivation, to walk for leisure, health etc. without having to walk along or cross busy, noisy and polluted traffic-bound roads.
