Richard Wilson

Last week I attended an ‘emergency’ meeting of the Friends of Stationers Park to discuss the state of the park, which has declined rapidly since Reg the park keeper retired.  High on residents’ list of concerns is the large metal fence that Veolia (the Council’s new waste contractor) have been allowed to erect round the old maintenance hut.   It is very ugly and visible across large parts of the park.  It seems to have been put up without any warning, consultation or planning permission.

The fenced of area is being used to store Veolia’s street-cleaning handcarts. However, Veolia’s contract does not involve cleaning the park – so residents have to put up with all these street cleaners coming in and out of park, but not actually doing any cleaning in the park.

People are understandably furious, and I’ve got in contact with the Director in charge of the waste contract at Haringey Council, to demand to know who gave Veolia permission to do this.  I’ve asked that a different site be found as soon as possible. I’ve also contacted the Planning Department and asked them to investigate.  I’m sure that a fence of this size must need planning permission – particularly as the facility has nothing to do with the maintenance of the park.

With regards to the upkeep of the park, the council officers at the meeting promised that once their staff re-organisation is complete the park wont be in such a bad state as it has been recently.  The cuts to the park’s department’s budget are disproportionate and I’ve opposed them at Council meetings, but realistically the Council’s budget decision will not be reversed any time soon.  The role of the Friend’s group is going to become even more important in encouraging volunteering and keeping on the Council’s back about problems.  They will need lots of support from residents to keep the Park from declining.  Please get in touch if you want to help out.

I popped over to Stationer Park today to see the work to replace the ageing play fort with an imaginative new play area.  This project is the result of a huge amount of work by local residents and the Friends of Stationers Park over many years.

Obviously, for many local families it will be sad to see the old fort go.  Lots of young people have happy memories of playing on this well-loved feature. However, small bits of the fort are being kept in the new structures as a happy reminder.

The new designs are really imaginative and have been strongly influenced by local kids.  I’m told that the work to make the new play area rise from the ruins of the old fort will start properly next month.

Yesterday, I spent a few hours helping the Friends of Stationers Park get the word out about the final consultation event on the Stationers Park Play Area. The event will be in the play area on Monday (19th) between 3pm and 7pm and will be a great chance for everyone to look at the latest versions of the plans.

At the last consultation session in May (see previous post)  it was clear that there was strong support for the new play area to emulate the old fort design that is so well loved – but to improve on it and create something even more fun and adventurous.  Working with local children, Groundwork (the charity that is designing the new play area) has now come up with three different fort designs, and they now want the views of the local community on these options.

Please do bring your family along and have your say on this brilliant project, which should ensure another generation of local children can play on a fort at Stationers Park.

It is now over four years since the Council last tried to condemn the play fort in Stationers Park as unsafe. During the election of 2006 the Labour Council promised to replace it – but instead once the election was over the money was diverted elsewhere and the fort was just patched up.  But, as I mentioned in a post back in January, thanks to the work of the local residents on the Friends of Stationers Park, most of the funding to replace the fort has now been granted from various sources (though more fundraising is still ongoing).

The fort has been treasured by local families for years – and we need to make sure it is replaced with something even better.  The design of the new play area should be down to local residents – especially the children who will use it.  To achieve this, Groundwork (the environmental charity managing the new design) wants to engage with the community through Friends of Stationers Park – and has planned a public consultation to present design options to park users.

This consultation event will be held in the park from 11am to 3pm on Saturday 15th May.  Please bring your family along and have your say!

It is brilliant to see progress being made at last.  However, there have been too many years of broken promises on replacing this fort from our Labour Council.  The Lib Dem team of Lynne Featherstone, Ed Butcher, Katherine Reece and I have made it a key election pledge to make sure that this time the promise is not broken – and that the Stationers Park fort is replaced with an even better play area.

I attended a first brainstorming session a few months ago which the Friends group ran with the play area designer from Groundworks. People came up with some really imaginative ideas,  so I think this event in the park could be a really exciting opportunity to get local families’ reactions to these, and to add even more ideas into the mix.

The Lib Dem team for Stroud Green have launched our election pledges for the neighbourhood.  I joined Lynne Featherstone, Katherine Reece and Ed Butcher at the Stationers Park play fort (see picture) – to highlight our top three priorities for the ward.  Our top three pledges are:

• We will make sure the Finsbury Park Controlled Parking Zone (CPZ) is reviewed, and that streets outside the CPZ can join if there is residents support.
• We will fight for measures to slow down traffic on Upper Tollington Park and to make the pedestrian crossing safer.
• We will make sure the Stationers Park Play Fort is replaced with an even better play area – ending years of broken promises from Labour.

Of course, there are a million other things we want to do, from improving our children’s centre to fixing our pothole problem, but speaking to residents – its the council’s failure to sort out these three problems that is causing the most frustration.  Residents are angry about the parking situation, want action on speeding traffic on Upper Tollington Park, and want an end to the years of broken promises on Stationers Park play fort.

I hope local residents will back these positive pledges to improve Stroud Green.

Local families really value the play facilities at Stationers Park, so its been very depressing to see the slow decline of the popular children’s playfort (see picture), with years of broken promises by the Council on repairing or replacing it.  But now there is some good news at last!

Thanks to the hard work of the residents in the ‘Friends of Stationers Park’ and our local parks officers, a bid for a Government ‘Playbuilder’ grant has been successful.  This means that part of the capital funding for a new big play facility is available – but more work and funding is needed to make this a reality.

I’m pushing the Council on a number of points:

• The Council need to facilitate a big consultation event at Hornsey Vale Community Centre so that more local families can have an input into the plans.  I know the Friends of Stationers Park are committed to getting a worthy successor to the much-loved playfort – but we need to make sure the Council don’t cut corners and push for something cheaper and less impressive.
• Getting in external grants is fantastic, but that’s no excuse for Haringey Council to wash their hands of their financial responsibility – this is a Council park.  I’m pressing Haringey to match fund any external grants to demonstrate their commitment and encourage donors.
• To get a move on – residents have waited long enough for action!

If you want to get involved with the Friends of Stationers Park to help improve the park and the play facilities please get in contact and I’ll pass on your details.

Because of Lib Dem conference I’m a bit behind with my posts – but I wanted to report back on last week’s meeting with the police and Haringey Council about security at Stationers Park.  The meeting was called after I met with Parks officers to demand action after the children’s play fort was badly vandalised (see previous post).

The good news is that the Council revealed they have spoken to the private contractors who close all the park gates in the Borough and they are now going to change the order they go round to ensure Stationers is one of the first to be closed – not one of the last as seemed to be happening.  I’m really pleased as this is something I suggested at the end of August.

At the meeting a Mayfield Road resident confirmed that on the first night of the vandalism the gate was still open after 10pm.  Of course, anyone can climb into the park if they really want – but leaving the gate open after dark is an open invitation to bored teenagers during the summer holiday, so this is a real Council blunder.

However, the bad news is that police say they will never be able to prioritise security at the park after dark unless more local people report problems.  Currently they say they get very few calls about late night anti-social behaviour – even though loads of residents are disturbed when it happens.  I would urge residents to help defend the Park.  If its not an emergency you can call the ‘Safer Parks Unit’ via the Met Police on 0300 123 1212.  If its an issue with the gates call the Parks Service on 020 8489 1000. 

I suspect the reason most people don’t complain is because they don’t believe anything will happen as a result.  So the police and the Council will need to make sure action is seen to happen when people take the time to contact them.