Ian Rumley-Dawson will be giving an illustrated talk on the 500-acre Hastings Country Park in the South Downs, to Bexley RSPB on Friday (December 17). His talk, at Hurstmere School, Hurst Road, Sidcup, at 7.45pm, will cover the park’s plants, wildlife and birds. Admission is £4.50 for non-members, 60p for under-16s.

Thames Water will be told by the London Assembly it will be expected to meet any additional costs if the cost of building the Thames Tunnel super sewer overruns its estimated £3.6b costs. The sewer will prevent sewage from overflowing into the River Thames during heavy downpours. The construction is already likely to cost Londoners an extra £90 a year on water bills.

The planting of a third batch of trees across London as part of London Mayor Boris Johnson’s street trees scheme, is about to get underway. Bexley is one of 24 boroughs benefiting from the project which aims to provide 10,000 new trees by March 2012. Between now and spring 244 new trees will be planted in the borough.

Bexley people travelling into London will now be able to get instant access to the capital’s bike hire scheme. Anyone with as Visa or MasterCard credit/debit card of Visa electron can use one of the 352 docking stations acrss London and hire a bike 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

London’s first two hydrogen powered buses were unveiled at Stratford bus station in east London on Friday. They will form part of a planned eight-strong fleet of hydrogen buses which will emit nothing else but water vapour. The bus garage will also house the UK’s largest permanent hydrogen refuelling station.