Harringay, Haringey - So Good they Spelt it Twice!
After 11 years of Event income, c.£10 million is not enough to pay for a single drinking water fountain in our public park
If we exclude the Pandemic year, New Labour’s policy to exploit Finsbury Park has been running for 11 years.
Leaders have bragged how much Event Income they squeeze out of our park by their hire policy. The most recent figures mentioned were £1.2 million and £1.3 million. Previous leader Cllr Ahmet dissembled when she claimed that every penny went back into the park.
Labour’s “Event Seasons” may have generated a total of roughly £10 million over 11 years. The Full Council declared a climate emergency seven years ago and the possibility of more— and more intense— heatwaves was predictable, then.
However, there is still not a single public drinking water fountain in our park. There is a tap (below).
When questioned about this a few years ago, the Head of Parks & Leisure (Simon Farrow) was completely opposed to the idea. Others who were present will remember his list of objections.
#PublicHealth
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Here is a tap at the side of the park office/yard that may be available to the public:
1—location shot; basket ball courts in background
2—just another tap in the wall
3—The Altar of water
4—"Please pull tap back to turn off water"
Photos from this morning, 9 July 2026
Tags for Forum Posts: Drinking Water, Events, Events Team, Finsbury Park, Haringey Council, New Labour policy, Water Fountain, heat wave, income, tap, More…
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Alan Stanton
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Clive, we all knew, didn't we, that the heatwave water problem was, sort of, temporary. Solved by carrying water until the highly unusual heatwave temperatures came to an end.
Except that we were wrong.
Here we are in another southern heatwave; day after day. And night after night. So no chilly hours to cool our homes. Now preheated from yesterday's hot muggy air.
And our new summer guests Biting mosquitoes/midges for whom we are the mobile drinking fountains.Please reframe your tags. Adding a few more relevant to the climate changed.
Like free clean drinking water from public automatically-shutting taps. Plus:lack of water and health risks; especially for children and elders. Plus: free water point maps in parks for public signage
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Permalink Reply by Mark Williams
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Thank you for raising this. It's a basic public amenity, and one our park sorely lacks. Even without the income from large events, providing free access to drinking water should be a standard feature of any public park, especially one as large as ours.
It's something I find personally frustrating as I like to exercise/run in Finsbury Park. In fact, despite being further away, I often end up going to Clissold Park instead because it has a drinking fountain and generally better facilities. It seems odd that one of London's busiest parks still lacks something so fundamental.
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Permalink Reply by Zena Brabazon
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Hi Clive
I hope you are pressing your ward councillors for this.
Zena Brabazon
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Permalink Reply by Clive Carter
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Hi Zena,
Yes, absolutely I will press Councillors in my (Stroud Green) Ward and in Harringay Ward in which the park is situate entirely.
Later this month, Trustees from The Friends of Finsbury Park have a scheduled meeting with the Council Leader, Cabinet Members and at least one council employee.
I expect a wide range of FP matters will be discussed, including the need for at least one public drinking water fountain.
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#PublicHealth ~ NHS advice: Heat exhaustion and heatstroke
1. Move them to a cool place (CDC riff: e.g. under the shade of a tree)
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3. Give them plenty of water to drink … (CDC riff: e.g. nearest public drinking water fountain)
4. Cool their skin – spray or sponge them with cool water … ( CDC riff: water that is normally avalable in public parks)
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Mark
I couldn’t agree more!
FP (Finsbury Park) is a big park (110 acres) and serves the public of three Boroughs.
The latter is part of the problem, because Haringey council “officers” dislike spending money that could benefit the residents of other Boroughs.
I know it sounds bizarre, that that’s how some of them think!
Although the cost (!?) of a drinking water fountain was the main objection advanced by the Head of Parks & Leisure, the likely use by and benefit to, non-Haringey residents may also have formed part of his … thinking.
FP’s location—at the southernmost tip of the Borough boundary—means that FP has long suffered from a lack of attention and maintenance from Haringey's administrators. If FP were in the centre of the Borough—or in Labour's Haringey-heartland, the middle of Tottenham—then park upkeep was likely to have been far better.
Clissold Park and Haringey Council learning
In Clissold park, by contrast, Hackney Council manage to achieve twice as much in half the area.
Due to Hackney superior governance and management, the Clissold Park User Group have long enjoyed a good and constructive relationship with Hackney Council.
Haringey could do far worse than use Clissold Park as a model.
However, any notion of using a neighbouring Borough's park as any kind of model would be met with total resistance from some council employees. It would fall squarely in the well-known, Not Invented here syndrome.
This syndrome is sometimes applied to companies, but IMO it could also apply to governments and local authorities. It applies in spades to our local council!
It helps to explain why our local council (a) issues PR statements that "lessons will be learnt" and (b) does not always learn lessons.
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