›

Finsbury Park loses 'Green Flag' status

AudaxAudax
in Local discussion
As reported in the Tottenham Independent:

https://www.thetottenhamindependent.co.uk/news/17207901.haringey-parks-have-green-flags-suspended/

Story carries quotes from local councillor, Friends of Finsbury Park and spokesman for Keep Britain Tidy (who run the Green Flag scheme).

The Council say the loss of status is not due to the impact of hosting Wireless Festival, but is instead down to a range of maintenance and cleaning issues. Perhaps the maintenance and cleaning needs wouldn't be so acute without the footfall and associated damage caused by events such as Wireless. On the other hand, the Council would probably have less money to tackle the issues without the fees generated by those big events.

Tagged:
Share on Facebook

Comments

  • BrodiejBrodiej
    Nice article. If the park was swimming in cash as it should be, they wouldn't lose the flag. Nice to have an objective measure on what is absolutely obvious to everyone that visits it.
    Share on Facebook
  • miss anniemiss annie
    edited November 2018
    Never seen an attendant/park keeper there. The bins get emptied semi regularly but no one just looking after the place. And some people are just untidy vermin who treat any public space as a tip.
    Share on Facebook
  • trainspottertrainspotter
    I think Wireless is a red herring personally. I can put up with it. I don't particularly care if all the money goes back into the park. But I care very much about the park and one way or another I want it back at green flag levels of maintenance and cleanliness.
    Share on Facebook
  • trainspottertrainspotter
    Oh and safety.
    Share on Facebook
  • miss anniemiss annie
    I was threatened and chased by a group of young men when I was riding my bike through the park a couple of years. I called the police as there was no one to ask for help.
    Share on Facebook
  • LuiretteLuirette
    I'm not surprised, the Park really is scummy during the summer. There are loads of problems, including the lack of staff. Though I've noticed an increase in rubbish collections lately. Personally I'd like to see BBQs banned as in other parks - they are dangerous, damage the grass and have ruined several picnic benches, which remain deformed blackened husks.
    Share on Facebook
  • joustjoust N4
    BBQs are only dangerous when people do stupid things with them.

    Share on Facebook
  • ScruffyScruffy
    True, @joust , but there’s no shortage of stupid people, or to put it more politically correctly, nice decent folk with a talent for doing stupid things. And even if the idiocy of people… sorry, I mean the tendency of some otherwise perfectly decent people to be utter cretins, who think it’s all right to have a barbecue (or light any sort of fire) in the park can’t be completely relied upon, there’s also the danger posed by interactions with other park users, who might be doing something as resonable as kicking a football or thowing a Frisbee around, or just running about without a care as (for example) children have been known to enjo, particularly when in a park.

    The park is a public space, not a kitchen or a private back yard. Isn’t it good enough just to bring a picnic?
    Share on Facebook
  • trainspottertrainspotter
    I'm in favour of barbecues personally. I'm in favour of minimal rules in general- just common decency. Not everyone has a garden. Certainly not on my list if personal bugbears.
    Share on Facebook
  • therattletherattle
    BBQs can emit a huge amount of unpleasant smoke, present a fire risk, and are more prone to abuse than certain other things. For instance, when one wants to go home, but the fire is still burning or the BBQ is still hot, how does one dispose of it? (Answer: it gets left to burn unattended).
    Share on Facebook
  • trainspottertrainspotter
    You pour water on it and put it in the bin.
    Share on Facebook
  • trainspottertrainspotter
    Smoke, fire, etc yes but no more so than in a garden. Personally I do have a garden so would be ok with a ban but still think it's a bit mean. Though I think technically there is a ban already, it's just not enforced.
    Share on Facebook
  • ScruffyScruffy
    Common decency, @trainspotter , may at best be common; it isn’t universal. So we have to have rules for the adherents to the (growing?) cult of Selfish Arseholeism. Not everyone has a garden indeed (on the Haringey side we have back yards if we’re lucky). I suppose by the same logic, those without helicopter landing pads should land their helicopters in the park?
    Share on Facebook
  • trainspottertrainspotter
    Well let's start with rules against drug dealing, murder, sexual assault, vandalism and littering. We can worry about people daring to cook food, play games in the wrong area, walk tightropes, sit untidily and generally taking up space later.
    Share on Facebook
  • miss anniemiss annie
    We already have rules about drug dealing, murder, sexual assualt and vandalism. It's called the law, you call the police.
    Bylaws and park rules cover the rest. Hundred per cent agree with Scruffy. I'm sure everyone here is a sensible, community minded person but given the amount anti social behaviour and of rubbish left behind in the park every day over the summer I'm in favour of rules being enforced.

    Particularly all and any anti tightrope rules. It's not the ropes themselves, I like most circus related things, it's the lack of care for other park users that I don't like. The "Hey, I've roped off a big section of park so I can prat about with my merry band of tasselled hat wearing Chumbawumba rejects. Behold me for I am cool" mentality that I object to.
    Share on Facebook
  • trainspottertrainspotter
    It's not my cup of tea either but I'm a live and let live kind of gal. It's a big park, there's room for most things. Just not idiots leaving their crap everywhere and mugging passers by.
    Share on Facebook
  • miss anniemiss annie
    I always thought I was a live and let live kind of gal too but society's growing tendency towards selfishness and thoughtlessness has made me more aware of the need for rules to cover the lack of common sense and general twattery.
    Share on Facebook
  • ScruffyScruffy
    “Live and let live”, a vacuous phrase if ever there was. Applies to allowing barbecueing in the park, but not dropping litter? Seems a bit random.
    Share on Facebook
  • markomarko
    Regarding anti-social behaviour in the park, we could start with the problem drinkers congregating by the Seven Sisters gate in the afternoon, and the weed-smoking kids who between Seven Sisters gate and Stroud Green Road gate after dark.

    Seen plenty of dealing taking place in broad daylight whilst taking a short-cut through the park between the two gates. Guess it all happens outside of the shift times of the local neighbourhood police team?
    Share on Facebook
  • trainspottertrainspotter
    It probably is random. So is not allowing barbecuing but allowing running around throwing frisbees, probably. I just don't think that people enjoying a barbecue in a public space, or even twatting around on a tightrope wearing an annoying hat, is the kind of thing that ought to have the joy police doing overtime. Just because I don't like something doesn't mean it should be banned. Litterin is crappy though. Spoils the park for everyone for no net gain. Anyway, neither you nor I have dominion over what is or isn't allowed in the park. I was just stating that I don't agree barbecues should be banned in case any Councillors reading this thought it was a universally held opinion.
    Share on Facebook
Sign In or Register to comment.