Harringay, Haringey - So Good they Spelt it Twice!
All 3 Haringey paddling pools out of action
To save anyone else the same faff we’ve just encountered - please be aware that ALL THREE of Haringey’s paddling pools are currently out of order! All of them were due to open today - but none of them have (and Priory Park is out of action for a longer period). What with Clissold Park also being out of action for potentially the next 6 weeks, it’s not looking good for children’s water play in our local area. (My additional particular irritation is that when I checked on the pools and opening dates literally 2 days ago, they were all still anticipated as opening - hence my fruitless search for cooling down options today…!)
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Justin Guest
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Let’s hope the new Green councillors are seeing this and taking on board and may gain an understanding as to why Haringey voters have lent them their votes! #GetShitDone
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Permalink Reply by Clive Carter
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The previous Administration was more about indoor activities than outdoor.
Their lack of interest in outdoor activity or recreation was reflected across the board, from their lack of follow-through in Active Travel, to their public park rental policy and in their relative lack of interest in the environment and in air quality.
Haringey is London Borough of Culture 2027. Much public money is being poured into 'culture'. But do we really need a Director of Culture at all, never mind one paid at the same level as the UK Prime Minister?
Paddling pools offer fewer personal publicity and photo opportunities for aspiring politicians.
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Permalink Reply by Zena Brabazon
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Sorry Clive, that simply isn't true.
The holiday programmes for children and young people are full of varied activities across the borough to meet their interests and enthusiasms. The Holiday Activity and Food programme (HAF) runs in schools and other community venues, offering free outdoor and indoor activities, and free lunch for children and young people who are eligible for free school meals. Dance, football, tennis, basketball are just some examples.
Our administration also ensured there were commissioned activities across the borough for all children and young people, including those with special needs. The Brook, part of the Inclusive Learning Campus on Broadwater Farm hosts over a hundred children with special needs during the holidays. They have wonderful outdoor space which I can assure you is well-used. There are projects like Access to Sport in your own backyard park, Finsbury Park, and basketball on Ducketts Common is another. Packed from morning till night. It is both unfair to make assertions like this which are generalised and not based on any factual knowledge of provision.
Our administration did a lot of work on active travel - 37 school streets for example. There is a brilliant creative officer who works with schools on this very subject.
We also ran and developed the carbon fund which provided funding for numerous local groups to run environmental projects. Anna and I worked on air quality and have ensured the Director of Public Health is centrally involved in the issue. The proposal to engage openly and positively with the businesses to seek some solution to the issue came from us and Cllr Ibrahim Ali.
And by the way, the biggest and grandest play area in Haringey is the Richard Hope Playspace in Finsbury Park. Or maybe you just haven't noticed.And finally, on paddling pools, we agreed a budget of £200,000 to bring the three paddling pools - Priory Park, Bruce Castle Park and White Hart Lane - back up to standard. I don't know why they haven't opened yet but the funding for the refurbishment and repairs was agreed by our Cabinet. There may be genuine reasons for the delays. The fourth paddling pool is in Lordship Rec. This was given a complete makeover when we had Sure Start funding. I should know as I led the Sure Start programme in Haringey and ensured the works were done. It is hugely popular, and a fabulous investment of public funding. And its outside recreation.
Zena Brabazon
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Permalink Reply by KatieH
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Hi Zena,
I’m sure I don’t disagree with much of your first few paragraphs, but on the note of the two key successes you’ve mentioned towards the end: the Richard Hope play space is excellent but has had broken equipment for months. And Lordship Rec paddling pool is one of the three that is not ready to open. I wasn’t even aware of White Hart Lane - that’s a fourth that’s not working, then. Unfortunately, as with many of our playgrounds and spaces across the borough, the issue seems to be with a lack of maintenance - we are lucky to have plenty of green spaces around us, and places for children to play (most of which aren’t the over for the key summer months by commercial enterprises that prevent or put off locals from using them) but many of them are in sore need of a bit of looking after. It’s great that money is currently being spent on several playgrounds across the borough to bring them back up to standard, but if they were maintained better in the first place, they wouldn’t have gotten so bad before this needed doing.
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Permalink Reply by Alan Stanton
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Hi Katie,
Can I please suggest that as well as posting on HoL, you could Email the senior Council officers and the Haringey Chief Executive. In fact, it may be sensible to start by phoning the Chief Executive as soon as the Council offices are open after the holiday.
You may think my next suggestion is going over the top, but when I was once an elected councillor in the mists of time, I occasionally took photos of closed facillities and posted them on Flickr website.
Obviously if there were planned openings today and these have had to be postponed for last minute safety reasons, these children's safety concerns must take precedence.
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Hi Alan,
Much as I would love to start a campaign with the council about this, I think you may be overestimating the amount of free time a parent of young children has in the half term holiday ;-) Obviously it is a council failing - clearly no maintenance or even looking at the paddling pool facilities has taken place until the day before they were due to open - but my biggest concern with this thread was to help others avoid the wasted journeys! If you fancy starting a campaign in my behalf, though, you’d be more than welcome…!
I agree with the hopeful sentiments expressed above that the new council leadership might pay more attention to our outdoor spaces and facilities. We shall see!
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Thanks for replying Katie. I wasn't suggesting a campaign.
So let me scale down my suggestion. The Chief Executive is Andy Donald.
andy.donald@haringey.govMy minimal suggestion is to cut-and-paste your own post from HoL But give Andy Donald your name and email so he can reply to you directly with the full facts he discovers and action he will take.
I take your point about hoiday time. We are lucky to have three young grandaughters.Alan
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Oops,
andy.donald@haringey.gov.uk
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Alan, there is surely a large volume of emails going to that address. If they're responded to, then they may be answered by an assistant.
When in February I wrote as a resident to the current CEO asking solely for confirmation of receipt of previous emails (relating to ongoing litigation)—including one to him personally—I received a response, not from him, but from the council's chief legal officer that could hardly have contained less information:
Thank you for your email of 27 February 2026 which has been received by the Chief Executive’s Office and by myself.
In essence—and as far as it was meaningful—it implied my email had not bounced, but did not confirm that any email had actually been read.
The importance of being impertinent
As a Councillor years ago, I wrote to the then CEO in a 100% factual and constructive way about a serious Haringey Council matter that needed to be dealt with at the highest level. The CEO flicked it over to the legal officer for reply. It was an entirely inappropriate action.
I wrote back to the CEO (who is after all, a council employee) suggesting he had not read my letter, and still less, had understood it.
I heard back that he regarded me as "impertinent". In any event, following my "push-back", the entire sensitive matter was resolved in the way it ought to have been in the first place. I think he realised he'd been caught out.
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If the current issue is to be progressed, then IMO it would indeed take the kind of campaign /suggestion along the lines that you originally proposed. The general factors that tend to get attention and break through chronic municipal inertia are:
- Bad publicity
- Complaint to the council (probably a waste of time)
- Complint to the Whip (ditto)
- Complaint to the MP
- Threat of legal action; or the actuality of legal action
We are at Stage One. Perhaps today's forecast 32° may prod paddling pool progress.
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In my experience complaining to the council is a waste of time, they fob you off with excuses, lies and obfuscation.
Even raising a complaint to a "Stage 2" is a waste of time.
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