Harringay, Haringey - So Good they Spelt it Twice!
Friends of Finsbury Park to Mount Legal Challenge to Wireless
The Friends of Finsbury Park want to stop the Wireless Concert occupying "a third" of the park for two week in mid-summer
The Friends of Finsbury Park have set a course to mount a legal challenge to Haringey Council's renting out Finsbury Park for the Wireless Festival
The Friends say of the Wireless Festival, "It is almost impossible to comprehend its vast scale and the impact it has on Finsbury Park. Last year’s Wireless Festival covered almost one third of the size of the Park, surrounded by an oppressive 8ft high green metal barrier to keep Park users out, in some areas stretching as far as the eye could see.
"Many local residents don't have gardens so the park serves as a vital outdoor amenity, and as events such as Wireless Festival take weeks to set up and take down the public is denied access to what should be public space.
"Last year’s Wireless Festival, which was held over two summer weekends, attracted crowds of 50,000 per day causing massive disruption, damage, excessive noise, and antisocial behaviour in streets surrounding the Park.
Relationships between the Friends group and the Council have long been frosty. But now it appears they are breaking down altogether with meetings being cut short or cancelled and now a legal challenge. A spokesman for the friends group said "We've tried everything to get Haringey Council to enter into discussions with us, but they refuse to listen, stopping all public consultation and ignoring stakeholder groups, local residents and park users".
The group is now launching a legal challenge to stop the Council staging the festival and similar major events in Finsbury Park. I am not clear at this stage what the basis of the legal challenge is, but I'm guessing the clue might well be in a recent statement:
Finsbury Park is a public park that was formed by virtue of the Finsbury Park Act 1857; it is registered as a Grade II Historic Park and Garden and is also Metropolitan Open Land.
The group say they will have to pay up to £35,000 plus VAT for issuing the proceedings and having a one day hearing in the High Court. To raise the required monies, a crowdfunfing page was set up on Monday. As of today the page has attracted over £5,000 funding, about 12% of the total amount they may require.
Alongside the preparations for the legal challenge, the friends group have also lodged an official objection to the festival.
Tags for Forum Posts: finsbury park, finsbury park events, wireless festival
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Pat on
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Are you sure that no one from the Boroughs of Haringey, Islington, and Hackney attend the Wireless Festival? I think you may be making that up. And two weeks out of 52, with the majority of the park opened and enjoyed by non-festival goers during those two weeks.
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Permalink Reply by StephenBln on
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I would just like to point out, that Finsbury Park has never been/ was never planned as a 'local park'. The reason for it's being was as a 'regional open space', especially for those, resident in the highly built up areas to the south of it. The reason it was County run 'recreation ground' and not managed by or for the benefit of a particular Borough.
By a quirk of planning, it has now been given over to Borough, to which it has less stragtegic importance than those to it's south. That is where, in my opinion, the problem lies and of course, this post Thatcher British mania of trying to make money out of everything.
Its use as an event location, should have more to do with providing leisure opportunities for Londoners, from all parts, not just Haringey, than just being milked for as much dosh as possible.
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Permalink Reply by Clive Carter on
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It was before my time in London Stephen, but people tell me our public park was better run when it was managed by the GLC. I'm quite prepared to believe that. My personal view is that our park needs to be removed from the clutches of a sole Borough where—in every sense—it lies on the periphery. Sadly, it is now viewed by the Council as little more than an asset to sweat.
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Permalink Reply by 0n59eal4meshz on
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The omens for joint ownership/management of parks are not too good. Tower Hamlets and Hackney dissolved their voluntary partnership running Victoria Park after only a few years - now run by the borough in which it is located ,TH.
In any event, no government is likely to legislate on anything to do with boundaries of London boroughs for several decades! Nor does it follow that a larger authority would be unsympathetic to large concerts in the park.
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The GLC was a different era, Clive. The GLC gave school kids free tickets to the opera when I was young.
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Permalink Reply by Michael Anderson on
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Not before mine Clive. I lived opposite the park on Seven Sisters Road in 1981-83. It was a crime ridden cesspit. I would walk a mile around it rather than through it. A bit of Googling for Finsbury Park will pull up some pretty awful goings on in the early eighties including a riot where there was a running battle up and down Seven Sisters. My bin lid was used as a riot shield by someone! And of course the now legendary Madstock earthquake.
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Clive, I think the Friends are aware that some very hard choices are being made about how to continue to fund parks and open spaces in Haringey, and in all other London boroughs. As Haringey have lost something like 50% of their government funding in the past 5 years it would seem inevitable that either less money is spent or more money is raised.
I don't particularly like large scale events in Finsbury Park but I have to be pragmatic and decide whether I'm willing to put up with two weeks of disruption and noise or to have parks (and it is parks plural as Finsbury Park income means that money can be spent on all the other parks in the borough too) run down.
As some others have pointed out, community events just won't bridge the gap. You have said that the Friends have their own ideas about how that can be done without recourse to large scale events. I think that sharing that and showing people how the parks service can be maintained without the need to large event income would really strenghten your case. At the moment the whole argument comes over as gainsaying.
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Permalink Reply by Bethany Burrow Atherton on
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It's all available on the UK Companies Register, the same as for any other UK company. https://beta.companieshouse.gov.uk/company/04343874 and click the "filing history" tab. Because it's a small company, the accounts are in abbreviated form, but it should give you some idea. Board minutes would never be available publicly unless they chose to make them public.
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Permalink Reply by JoeW on
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It seems that 9 of the current 11 FoFP trustee/directors were appointed in 2015 or later:
https://companycheck.co.uk/company/04343874/THE-FRIENDS-OF-FINSBURY...
I believe political theorists would describe this as "entryism"?
I also note that the opponents of the Battersea Park events have set up a dedicated Action Group to pursue their legal action, rather than hijack the existing Friends of Battersea Park organisation.
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Pleased you recognise that the Machiavellian machinations are not limited to this Borough. Do keep going with the conspiracy theories, they're great reading.
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Very clever. You can tell you are a politician. Now why don't you answers some of the very pertinent questions posed to the 'friends' but have resolutely refused to answer, apart from constantly reiterating the statement that the 'friends' are 400 and growing, and cover three boroughs.
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Sorry I have no more conspiracy theories.
I did notice from the low level of activity in the accounts https://companycheck.co.uk/company/04343874/THE-FRIENDS-OF-FINSBURY... that FoFP seems to have been effectively dormant for several years prior to the takeover by the current cabal. It does have about £3.5K cash in the bank, I wonder if that was used to kick start the current crowdfunded legal action?
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