FINSBURY PARK | Less damage to our park than last time?

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Martin Ball on July 20, 2014 at 21:23

It is sickening to see those photos of the damage done to the park. When I spoke at the January meeting I joined others in warning that the increase in concerts would wreck the grass - as well as cause other damage - and it is of no satisfaction to be proved correct. Those councillors - and the senior officers pushing the exploitation of our parks - who refused to stop the increase in concerts should be ashamed at not heeding the wishes of the community that the park's environment should not be sacrificed in a grubby money grab by Haringey Council. They may be legally within their right to rent out park land, but by doing so are no longer entitled to claim to be the guardians of our environment. 

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Permalink Reply by Maddy on July 21, 2014 at 21:48

I was so upset to see the state of the park when I went to see the Routemaster festival. The usually lush green strip of land by Seven Sisters looked like a desert or a war zone - on summer days it is usually full of groups of people playing games on the grass. It will recover eventually, but not in time for the summer holidays.

Why are the people who put on the festivals not legally obliged to re-turf areas of grass that have been trampled into mud? Let alone repair any damage to the infrastructure - paths and roads etc?

I have not heard one decent argument that these concerts are a good thing for Finsbury Park or for Haringey. I know some people like having the music on their back doorstep, but it's not as if there aren't plenty of other (more suitable) places to go and see bands in London. Whereas those of us who like peace and quiet and a chance to sit in our gardens or play in the park at weekends have no choice but to put up with days of unbearably loud music, the cordoning off of large parts of the park for weeks at a time and the wreckage of our formerly pleasant local green space. I don't know about the finances of it, but I seriously doubt that the money the council receives for these concerts goes into maintaining or repairing the park, and probably is nowhere near as much as it should be anyway, given the disruption to residents.

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Permalink Reply by Clive Carter on July 22, 2014 at 13:22

Maddy, as far as I'm aware, the vaunted Finsbury Park Strategy Group hasn't expressed an opinion about this.

Earlier this year, I expected that this Strategy Group would be a sop and a sham. Has anyone seen their Minutes? Can it make decisions? Are those decisions binding?

I would love to be proved wrong about this.

The Finsbury Park Strategy Group was confected by the Council and offered to residents as compensation for the Scrutiny Committee declining to send the major concerts policy back to the Cabinet. Might one not expect the Strategy Group to have views on the state of our public park?

Also, the only thing more deafening than the Wireless sound check before the concert, is the silence of recently elected three wise local Councillors on this matter. Technically the park is in Harringay Ward. I managed to find a relevant photo, allegedly of all three together:

The recent Wireless concert is a foretaste of what is to come next year, when our park will be used more intensively.

Councillor—Highgate Ward

Liberal Democrat Party

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Permalink Reply by Zena Brabazon on July 22, 2014 at 13:49

Dear All

I just posted this reply on Maddy's thread about Finsbury Park. You need to make all the complaints formal. The photos provide evidence which could form the basis for a licensing review which can be requested through the licensing officer Daliah Barrett. Or you could call for a proper report and investigation to be reported to the Stakeholder Group at the very minimum and do that through HoL as well as the Council.  But if you don't formalise complaints and simply post on HoL you can be easily ignored as the bureaucracy trundles on.

Zena Brabazon

______________________________

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Hi Maddy

You should contact Cllr Stuart McNamara who is the Council's Cabinet member for the environment. His brief includes Parks and also licensing. The state of the park should be of concern to both parks managers and also the licensing officers who will have had - or will have - a review and debriefing of how the event went.  Bearing that in mind you could cc your email to Cllr Peray Ahmet who chairs the Regulatory Committee which includes licensing. 

I suggest you copy in the lead officers for both services - parks and licensing. If you have pictures that would be excellent evidence. 

Email addresses are:

Stuart.mcnamara@haringey.gov.uk 

peray.ahmet@haringey.gov.uk

daliah.barrett@haringey.gov.uk - she is the Council's licensing officer

simon.farrow@haringey.gov.uk - he leads on parks and open spaces I think 

Good luck

Zena

_______________________

Zena Brabazon

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Permalink Reply by Carrie on July 22, 2014 at 21:17

Hi, thanks for these email addresses, I've sent a few complaints in to the customer service address they gave on letter about the concerts, but have heard nothing back.  I also emailed Simon Farrow to ask why I'd not heard anything about the Stakeholder Group (I was at the meeting where this was promised) and have not had a reply.  I'll give these a go.

In response to those people who like the concerts - I have lived in the area for ages too, and used to like the Fleadh (sorry about spelling), and did think of it as a positive thing for the area, but it was once a year, smaller, and didn't have such horrible tall solid metal walls, and wasn't as loud, and wasn't for 3 afternoons and 3 evenings!  I use the park almost every day, and the recent concerts have been way too disruptive. I agree with those people who suggest smaller and fewer and better managed concerts, for less time (like we used to have) - surely that would be a better compromise.

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Permalink Reply by Clive Carter on July 23, 2014 at 6:13

Carrie, good luck in finding out anything about the Stakeholder Group. I'm not sure it exists, or if it is known as a Strategy Group, I'm not convinced it exists in any meaningful sense. If you do manage to find out anything about it, would you be kind enough to post publicly?

In January, the Chairman of the Council's Scrutiny Committee "demanded" that officers establish the Group by the end of that month (i.e. five months ago). Also, it was said at the time that:

One of the most important outcomes for local residents is the recommendation for the establishment of a Finsbury Park Strategy Group. Harringay's Cllr Gina Adamou suggested this as the way forward to ensure that residents have a voice on the future of events in our park.

However, if it doesn't really exist, it is hard to see that it can perform its intended purpose as a sop and a sham group to ensure that residents have a voice on the future of events in our park.

I agree with the points you make about the concerts. Broadly, the drawbacks of the mega-concerts programme beginning next year are:

• Noise. A few residents welcome free overspill music. For the majority, the music must be heard, whether or not it is to their taste or whether it is convenient (e.g. shift workers may be trying to sleep).

• Denial to residents of a public amenity. Residents will be excluded from the centre of their park, at the height of summer, for extended periods. There has been determined misleading about this.

• Damage to our park. This is the most obvious, visible dis-benefit. It cannot be hidden, despite pointless wood-chips being tipped into the gouged bits.

BTW, anyone can re-use the photos of the damage to our park (Mac: control-click; PC: right-click).

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Permalink Reply by Clive Carter on September 9, 2014 at 7:27

FOLLOWING the damage to our park, some desultory efforts at repair were made. As will be seen, some of the damage-limitation exercise was for the birds.

A couple of low-loaders came in (double-click to enlarge)

From which two tractors drove off

The low-loaders parked in the shade near the tennis courts

Damage-limitation begins. There have already been passes over this area: note the parallel lines in the ground.

Especially in the slow-to-recover east-side, these lines are still visible today (Tuesday, 9 September)

A pair of tractors went around spreading seeds in some of the worst affected areas

The photos above show the tractor operating near the south-centre of our park; a second operated on the particularly badly down-trodden east-side.

However, there was no watering at the time and no effort was made to fence-off the areas that were seeded. How serious or professional was this?

Much of the effort went into feeding birds ...

On the east side, after dinner was served. Pigeons loved the repair work!

Yum yum. Thank you for the seed feed.

Seven weeks later, the gouged-out parts of our grounds don't seem to have been repaired even after the reported receipt of hundreds of thousands of pounds.

However, with the passage of time, plus rain and cooler weather, some parts of the park that were so badly trampled show some signs of recovering.

The summer was a foretaste of the effect next year when – due to the Council Cabinet Concerts policy – intense exploitation of our park will begin.

Then we will see more scorched-earth.

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Permalink Reply by Clive Carter on January 26, 2015 at 19:54

PostScript

The next Wireless Festival is scheduled for June-July this year (2015) when the maximum number of attendees will be 45,000.

Further details (ex-Council) below.

If you any comments – as either individuals or "stakeholders" on the notification (below) from the Haringey Event Office about a proposed event in Finsbury Park 3-5 July 2015, please send to

parksbookings@haringey.gov.uk 

by 27th January 2015.

i.e. by tomorrow evening.

___________________________________________________________________________________________________

Event Detail:

Title of event:	Wireless Festival
Venue:	Finsbury Park
On site at (Prep):	25/06/2015 08:00:00
Start time:	03/07/2015 12:00:00
Finish time:	05/07/2015 22:00:00
Off site (clear up):	10/07/2015 18:00:00
Other information:	Small amounts of restocking before 08:00 and some production vehicles leaving after 22:00
Max number of attendees:	45000
Audience Profile:	Families, Young People
Is the event ticketed:?	Yes
Is the event open to public:?	Yes
Invited guests only:?	No
Type of Event:	Music festival

Event Description:

3 day popular music festival

What benefits will this event bring to the local community?

There will be a huge spend by the event customers & staff in the area and direct funding of some local projects

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