National Grid are undertaking works on the pylon in the car park at Rye Meads. This work includes replacing the conductors (lines themselves) as well as the insulators, and maintenance on the pylon structure itself: so major works. You can find out more about the North London Reinforcement (NLR) project  HERE. The same works are also being undertaken on pylons either side of our car park including on the HMWT meadow.

The main effect to the site will be parking at the visitor centre with a large area of the car park closed off as it falls in the work area leaving us approx. 6 parking spaces and no access to the Lapwing Hide. As such, the car park will be closed on Tuesdays and Thursdays, but the Visitor Centre and trails will be open as usual.  On other days there will be a system in place to stack staff and volunteer parking in the coach bays, leaving the 6 spaces free on a first-come, first-served basis.

There will be no coach parking or designated disabled parking available during this time, but there will be a drop off point close to the visitor centre.

Works on the pylon in the meadow have a slightly different timeline and requires a track to be laid across the meadow for access. The track will start being laid on 7 April, so there is likely to be minor disruption to access the reserve during this phase. The aim is for work to begin on the meadow pylon on 18 April and completed with track removed by 24 May, so again expect minor disruption for track removal.

The first stage of 2025 work is the delivery of scaffolding on 7 and 8 April followed by construction of scaffolding gantry over the road on 14–16 April.

Allowing for preparation of works, the maximum timeframe is 28 April–13 June 2025.

This means there will be very limited parking at Rye Meads 28 April–13 June 2025.

Be sure to check the Rye Meads Blog for regular updates: https://community.rspb.org.uk/placestovisit/ryemeads/b/ryemeads-blog