Harringay, Haringey - So Good they Spelt it Twice!
Falling on deaf ears
On Friday, the Islington Tribune published their interview (above, click to expand) with some of the management committee of The Friends of Finsbury Park.
Haringey Council exploits the site of Finsbury Park at an edge and southern-most corner of the Borough. The noise nuisance, the loss of amenity and the damage to the park, all these features are shared disproportionately with neighbouring Boroughs. The income is not shared proportionately, either.
A few months ago, a group of Islington Councillors convened a special meeting at the Finsbury Park Mosque, reflecting disquiet of their residents. Meanwhile, the silence from their counterparts in our Borough is deafening.
Jeremy Corbyn is not only MP for Islington North and a candidate for Labour Party leader: he is co-founder and the patron of the Friends group. I was pleased to see a copy of his letter to Haringey Council, complaining about this matter.
That letter fell on deaf ears, but the deafest ears will surely be those along the eastern side of Seven Sisters Road, in Hackney.
But it doesn't matter about other Boroughs' residents, does it?
C D Carter: a member of
Friends of Finsbury Park
& Haringey Council and
Liberal Democrat Party
Tags for Forum Posts: finsbury park, fofp, friends of finsbury park, wireless
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by JLJones on
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I am one of the Friends and was one of those interviewed and photographed for this piece. Unfortunately the response from The Haringey Council spokeswoman reads to me like a protocol from a call centre. Disruption to residents cannot be kept to a minimum as there is no real definition of minimum. The disruption is massive, from loss of amenity to noise, ant-social behaviour and all forms of human waste dumped in our front gardens. As proved at a recent Stakeholders meeting the noise monitoring is inaccurate and pointless. If you sit at home and play music at levels high enough to make conversation difficult or impossible you won't be breaking the noise levels as defined by Haringey. Try doing that over a three day period and you'll go slowly mad. The regular patrols for litter and anti social behaviour are pure fiction - the council won't be able to stop the use of our front gardens as toilets. In the past the hotline has either been left to ring or answered by someone who is clearly powerless to intervene. And when someone does come to your front door, they too are powerless. The spokeswoman is proud of the reduced setup times and the introduction of additional facilities like toilets and increased stewards, some recruited locally. Whilst we oppose events of this scale and impact, these are things that any civilised and democratic society should do as a matter of course. They shouldn't have to be announced as heroic achievements. I would simply ask the spokeswoman to come and experience it for herself before she reads out another press release that bears no resemblance to what actually happens. Perhaps the next press release should simply say something like - "Sorry everybody, its going to be noisy and unpleasant but it's too bad for the tens of thousand who live around the park, we're doing it for the money."
I live in Hackney, just south of the park. Our welfare is pretty well ignored by Hackney who could put pressure on their counterparts in Haringey. They don't. Hackney and Islington need to listen to their constituents and oppose Haringey's selfish and unfair events policy. It isn't good enough to live with it. All of Haringey's staff and councillors responsible for the policy ignore the wishes of their constituents as there appears to be a three-line whip to turn Finsbury Park into a concert venue. Islington and Hackney need to stand up and say 'No, enough is enough'.
Jeremy Llewellyn-Jones
Friend of Finsbury Park, Hackney
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I din't say anything about sharing events income. Residents of both Islington and Hackney are severely impacted by events in Finsbury Park. Haringey controls the asset and we in the other boroughs who live close are directly and greatly affected by Haringey events policy. You haven't read what I've written.
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Perhaps its the basis of a good idea. We in the other boroughs get hellish disruption and no benefit. Maybe all three boroughs should take over control of the Park, a Trust. Just so long as we don't have to copy Haringey's austerity plans which seem to be as severe as Osborne's...
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Permalink Reply by Clive Carter on
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As a general principle, I'm not "keen" to hand over income from the Council. However, I understand some small compensation is already made to cover the cost's of neighbour's forced extra policing.
The note about sharing of income was an aside on the theme of disproportion: I am mainly concerned that much of the impact of the Events is being borne by the neighbouring Boroughs, whose residents, such as Jeremy understandably are not satisfied.
This is not a Highgate Ward issue, but I'm concerned simply as a local (Stroud Green) resident. I see the damage to the park and the loss of amenity. Most of my post was about the effects on our neighbours; however I can assure you there are plenty of local (Haringey) residents who are dissatisfied, too.
Generally councils have less care, concern and regard for assets and activity that sit on the border with another Borough. This is a good example, but the Finsbury Park area has for decades been little regarded by all three councils. Councils should endeavour to be good neighbours to each other, rather than behave in a nakedly selfish way.
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Permalink Reply by pamish on
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Not just noise. 45000 people between me and my bus.
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Thanks for the link Pam.
The conduct of Haringey is quite selfish about their "asset" that is used by the public without distinction to which boundary it sits in. One point I forgot to make is that, although I have no figures, it would seem possible is that our park may be used more, by residents of the two neighbouring Boroughs.
The main entrance is close to the southernmost tip of Haringey Borough, where Hackney and Islington meet. At that point, it seems likely that at least two-thirds of users would be from the other Boroughs and probably a higher proportion.
Perhaps the next-most important gate faces Hackney and both these gates are by tube lines. According to my reckoning, half of the entrances including two of the three major ones, face other Boroughs.
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