Roadworks and Congestion
The planned road works and diversion at Petersham Road and road works at Star and Garter Hill commenced on 1 August.
Initially the works at Star and Garter Hill caused considerable congestion within the park but the traffic management was altered on 3 August and this improved the situation.
The park will receive a higher volume of traffic until 5 September and many cars are diverting around the south and east side of the park to avoid the delays.
Responsible Dog Ownership
Richmond Park is a very popular place to walk dogs and for good reason. We welcome dog walkers but ask them to be ‘responsible’ - this means:
- Pick up after you dog every time and don’t let them chase deer or other wildlife.
- Make sure your dog has a tag with the telephone number of the person walking the dog at all times. Micro chipping a dog confirms proof of ownership but does not allow a dog to be reunited with the owner quickly so it’s best to keep a spare tag as well.
- To ensure your dog is not a nuisance or annoyance to others, make sure it has good recall and be aware of people that may be uncomfortable with dogs so you can recall them and put them on the lead.
- It’s also recommended to have 3rd party liability insurance.
- Please respect the areas that dogs aren’t allowed or need to be on a lead (which may be seasonal).
- When you first treat your dog with flea and tick treatment this can wash off in ponds and kill pond invertebrates causing serious environmental damage, so keep dogs out of streams and ponds for at least a week after treatment.
- Finally never leave a dog in a car on hot days.
Contaminated water in the Beverley Brook
When it rains on the public highway, the runoff washes into storm drains that connect to rivers and keep the roads from flooding. The water can be contaminated with debris from worn car tyres and drips of oil etc. from cars. After storms, the water that eventually flows into the Beverley Brook where the storm drain terminates can be contaminated and look discoloured.
This autumn we are working with the South East Rivers Trust and the Environment Agency to install a piece of infrastructure to help clean the pollutants from the water before it enters the Brook. This small structure will be located just inside the park boundary by Roehampton Car Park.
Dogwood
When a plant is prefixed with the word ‘dog’, it often refers to it having little or inferior value. However this short shrub produces hard straight stems that were used to make animal prods known as dags – so ‘dogwood’ may be a derivative of ‘dagwood’. Chaucer referred to dog wood as ‘whipple tree’ sharing the name with a device used to evenly distribute the pulling power of a horse team down to a single rope, using 3 or more bars made from dog wood and still used by Richmond Parks’ shire horses today. Various dogwood species and cultivars are planted in perennial borders and the true native Dogwood is planted in hedgerows in Richmond Park.
