Civic Centre 'Litter Mountain' protest against cuts to parks staffing

On Sunday 22nd May Friends Groups involved in the Haringey Friends of Parks Forum took action to oppose controversial cuts to park staffing. The groups believe that the cuts which involve 44 staff posts and £1.1m maintenance (which represents 51% of the total budget) will lead to an 'unviable' parks service.

Members the groups collected bags of litter from their parks and then dumped them on the Civic Centre steps. The group reported:

The Council attempted to stop the protest by bringing in extra staff for the day to pick up litter. They had hoped the activists would be unable to find any for the protest. For example on Sundays usually only one person from the highly-depleted parks cleansing team is on duty in the east of the borough, but this time there were 6 workers! However, they were still unable to cope with the volume of litter and overflowing bins... Activists welcomed the increased staffing on Sunday and have called for that level of service to be repeated every weekend throughout the rest of the year, not just on protest days. They vowed to implement 'mystery litter collection' visits to check this.

The action was in part a response to Council calls for already-overstretched Friends groups to 'volunteer' to help do park service jobs for free. Park activists say that: 'Volunteering is to enhance a well-run public service, not to substitute for it.'

Friends Groups therefore continue with their 'No To Cuts' borough-wide petitioning. As well as petition forms being available from their website - www.haringeyfriendsofparks.org.uk - the petition is the first ePetition ever to be added to the Council's own website: www.haringey.gov.uk (search for 'e-Petitions page').