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Finsbury Park Track faces closure
Haringey is in the position that it must make cuts in its expenditure over the next several years, and spending on parks and recreation facilities has not escaped the chop. My own particular interest in Finsbury Park is in the running track, although the cuts will also mean a deterioration in groundskeeping generally and litter picking.
An announcement in the the most recent Haringey People suggested that control of the running track would pass outside the council, but that some funding would pass with the control:
"White Hart Lane Community Sports Centre and the Finsbury Park track and gym will be leased to local sport clubs or agencies, while funding will be redirected to the voluntary sector, allowing them to deliver some services"
The email I have just received states otherwise. See below.
Dear Adrian
Thank you for your enquiry regarding Finsbury Park Track & Gym
The Council has formally decided that officers should seek 3rd party interest to operate and manage this facility. The only alternative to this is regretfully closure of the facility. Currently the facility is costing the Council approximately £50K per annum to operate. Given the budgetary cuts the Council has been forced to make (Recreation Services must make a 50% cut to its budget over the next three years) we are therefore looking to lease the facility to a third party at no future cost to the Council.
To specifically answer your questions:
Haringey Council is not proposing to make any funding available to the private/3rd /community sector to operate the facility
There is no readily available money but officers have given advice and put the current stakeholders in touch with HAVCO (Haringey’s umbrella organisation for the voluntary sector) to assist them in their efforts to lever in external funding
We have not yet finalised our criteria but we are looking for a solution we hope will:
Save the council £50K per annum in operating costs
Promote sports development
Protect current stakeholders
Ensure the facility remains available to the community in some form
Current staffing arrangements across the whole of Recreation are subject to restructuring at this time and the full implications of this are not yet known. There is one staff member on site with a permanent contract, other staff members are agency workers
We hope to retain public access as per present. However we recognise that potential tenants may not find this viable and therefore this aspect will probably be a matter for negotiation with the preferred bidder
We will be advertising this opportunity shortly and will update the public throughout the process via Haringey’s website (the Finsbury Park page), customer newsletters and stakeholder meetings
Regards
Andrea Keeble
Sport & Recreation Programme Manager
Recreation Services
3rd Floor
40 Cumberland Rd
N22 7SG
020 8489 5712
0787 015 7940
An announcement in the the most recent Haringey People suggested that control of the running track would pass outside the council, but that some funding would pass with the control:
"White Hart Lane Community Sports Centre and the Finsbury Park track and gym will be leased to local sport clubs or agencies, while funding will be redirected to the voluntary sector, allowing them to deliver some services"
The email I have just received states otherwise. See below.
Dear Adrian
Thank you for your enquiry regarding Finsbury Park Track & Gym
The Council has formally decided that officers should seek 3rd party interest to operate and manage this facility. The only alternative to this is regretfully closure of the facility. Currently the facility is costing the Council approximately £50K per annum to operate. Given the budgetary cuts the Council has been forced to make (Recreation Services must make a 50% cut to its budget over the next three years) we are therefore looking to lease the facility to a third party at no future cost to the Council.
To specifically answer your questions:
Haringey Council is not proposing to make any funding available to the private/3rd /community sector to operate the facility
There is no readily available money but officers have given advice and put the current stakeholders in touch with HAVCO (Haringey’s umbrella organisation for the voluntary sector) to assist them in their efforts to lever in external funding
We have not yet finalised our criteria but we are looking for a solution we hope will:
Save the council £50K per annum in operating costs
Promote sports development
Protect current stakeholders
Ensure the facility remains available to the community in some form
Current staffing arrangements across the whole of Recreation are subject to restructuring at this time and the full implications of this are not yet known. There is one staff member on site with a permanent contract, other staff members are agency workers
We hope to retain public access as per present. However we recognise that potential tenants may not find this viable and therefore this aspect will probably be a matter for negotiation with the preferred bidder
We will be advertising this opportunity shortly and will update the public throughout the process via Haringey’s website (the Finsbury Park page), customer newsletters and stakeholder meetings
Regards
Andrea Keeble
Sport & Recreation Programme Manager
Recreation Services
3rd Floor
40 Cumberland Rd
N22 7SG
020 8489 5712
0787 015 7940
Comments
As Sincers says: 'It seems to me that the council are using this as a high profile "told-you-so" example of how the cuts are affecting local councils.'
The way councils are behaving highlights the failure that runs through many of our local authorities, which is to know the cost of everything and the value of nothing.
The attitude of the politicians handing down the cuts does nothing to halt this and the Tory and Lib Dem senior MPs should wake up and smell the coffee and halt this laissez faire rubbish.
The ideology peddled behind trimming back spending was to stop wasting money on needless things and bloated middle and senior management - not close running tracks and stop picking up litter in parks.
Perhaps Haringey could keep the running track open by shaving £50k off this £140k salary - it would still be a very highly paid and sought after job.
<a href="http://www.localgov.co.uk/index.cfm?method=jobs.item&jobid=7328">£140k Director of Place & Sustainability</a>
And if doing so stopped the usual local authority merry go-round 'high level candidates' from applying that may be a good thing - I'm sure there are plenty of very competent and enthusiastic people out there who could do it for £90k not £140k.
As said there are alternatives to closing it.
When I was a youngster they used to hold events there some weekends. Is this still the case?
Have to admit I've not been in the Park since I've moved back to the area but it would be a shame if these facilities were to close.
To respond to some of the points:
The track may have been locked down at Easter because the staff take Bank Holidays - at present it cannot be open and unattended, so this was just one or two days. But it does give a clue as to the bleak nature of the place if it closed down permanently.
As for regular use, there is a lot:
London Heathside Athletic Club http://www.londonheathside.org.uk/home_news.htm use the track at least three times a week for training, on Tuesday and Thursday evenings and on Sunday during the day - these sessions provide training for a whole range of athletes, from about 10 years of age upwards, through to UK competitors.
The London Blitz http://www.londonblitz.com/index.php American Football Club uses the pitch in the centre of the track both for training and for matches. I saw a match starting last time I jogged through taht way - two full teams with substitutes all in full gear is quite a sight. The club seems to have an active youth section judging by the picture on the webiste which has been taken in the middle of the track.
Loads of other groups use the track as well - when I go training I see boxers and martial arts groups practising. The gym is generally full of muscular young men - I think it is cheaper than some commercial gyms.
The un-public appearance of the track arises from the 6ft fence around it. This is a recent addition as the old much lower fence was damaged allowing vandals easy access both to mess with sandpit covers and so on, and for petty thieves to enter and pilfer from kit bags and so on while events are taking place. The gate allows staff to monitor users and to collect fees.
I agree that £50,000 seems a small amount in the context of the borough's overal expenditure. Its even less than the savings thay are making on old folks' lunches.
I'd also make the following points:
Parks generally - part of the spectacle of the recent Royal Wedding was the greenery so close and the crowds in Hyde and Green Parks - parks generally are an important part of London and should be maintained
Athletics - this is the year before the London Olympics - part of the legacy should not be a derelict and abandoned track and clubhouse in Finsbury Park
Obesity - has been described as an epidemic - training and exercise should surely be made more available not less
Youth Services - on training nights - most of the athletes are aged from about 11 up to early 20s - under the supervision of older, wiser heads - rather like a youth club
Public Safety - presumably if the track does not find a new keeper, then the gates will be locked and the doors and windows boarded up, almost like an invitation to graffitists, squatters, vandals and delinquents
Public Access - one of the options the council is considering is allowing a tenant to take the track and close it to the public
Appearances - the track is a big part of the Park - if it is abandoned and becomes a blight, then the whole ambience of the park will change
<img src="http://api.ning.com:80/files/GFUsPCK74DtXkQ4q1b4XvGyDTOD5MEXcEfPW*mDlxwAa-DRuTb2gbPJ6L*VXqCVybwxxrouDYP2wMEEQOUeidt-GeqafWKdi/fptracklayers.gif" width="427" class="align-full" /></a></p>
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