Harringay, Haringey - So Good they Spelt it Twice!
FINSBURY PARK | Less damage to our park than last time?
ONE WEEK on from the Wireless festival, I took these photos yesterday, Saturday.
Is there less damage to our grounds than from the last big concert?
(click photos for a larger image)
Some of the damage to paths may have been caused before the most recent concert; some parts however, look worn and beaten: recently. Due to the Council Cabinet's Concerts policy, next year our park will be used more intensively.
The Routemaster 60th anniversary show is visible in some shots – last day is today, well worth a visit – one can inspect the ground at the same time.
Councillor | Highgate Ward
Liberal Democrat Party
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Here, I had seen this part of the path before it was filled with wood-chips (visible above).
The gouging was relatively deep.
Tags for Forum Posts: finsbury park, finsbury park events, finsbury park stakeholder group, wireless festival
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by alex on
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Whether or not there is less damage than last time, it looks like there is plenty of damage. And compacted and destroyed grass doesn't recover instantly. I think its unacceptable that our parks are being used for commercial purposes which mean huge parts (and usually the most popular areas for picnics and informal sports) cannot be used by residents for large parts of the summer. The events may only last a couple of days, but huge areas are fenced off not just during the event but also for set up and take down, and will probably have to be fenced off again to allow the grass to be restored.
On top of that you have the noise, which could be heard a very long distance away (I even heard it while trying to escape the event by going to Lordship Rec), and the damage and pollution caused by all the trucks setting up and taking down.
Parks should be restored to being places for residents to relax, get exercise and enjoy the benefits and beauty of nature. If people want commercial events they can go to commercial locations - there are plenty of these already.
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Permalink Reply by tigha on
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finsbury park has been used for big festivals for the last 20years i have lived in the area and prob many years before-to be honest I have always thought its been great but better when there used to be more free festivals whereas most you have to pay for now
of course it is always going to cause some damage but grass is easily repaired, but my question is it bringing money into the neighbourhood or is it costing us money to clean up-
if its not costing haringay anything well then its all good, park has been using the area for festivals for years, and people should have checked out the area before moving here
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Permalink Reply by Burgoyne Bec on
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I'd be interested to know what the cost for the use of the park was, and where that money is going, too. Perhaps the basketball courts could be upgraded, similar to Turnpike Lane? I imagine the profit from the park hire could easily cover new courts for residents.
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Permalink Reply by Clive Carter on
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compacted and destroyed grass doesn't recover instantly
MOST of the grass that was covered over (for a week or two) has faded, and it may recover in another week or two. However large areas – those trampled underfoot – may take longer to re-grow.
In the sites of gouged ground, wood chips have been placed, but to what purpose is obscure. It seems to be cosmetic/camoflage.
Since my first post, a local resident drew my attention to the impact on the east side of our public park, that I had not seen. Yesterday, I took these shots, almost all of which are on the east side parallel with Seven Sisters Road (click for larger image):
In the foreground, barely a blade of grass left
Currently, nearly a desert ...
Our amenity is a Grade II listed park, according to the Council (see foot)
In 2005, our park received a £5,000,000 award from the Heritage Lottery Fund
This is not going to heal itself. Woodchips will be scattered by dogs, blown away or become sodden with rain.
According to the council Finsbury Park provides a rich tapestry of landscapes.
It was a Green Flag Award Winner 2007—2013, "and has retained it ever since"
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I also noticed a few lumps of metal, scaffold and nuts and so on that had clearly been dropped and not picked up when they were packing away.
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I noticed those too Andrew.
The Council also claims on its website that,
It is the largest park managed by the Council and offers a peaceful green retreat from its urban built-up surroundings
Would that that were true year round. The two weeks or so – during the height of summer – in which the main part of the park is denied as a public amenity, does not reflect the whole period during which the park ceases to be available as a "peaceful green retreat", AKA a proper public park.
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Permalink Reply by Karen Alexander on
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When I saw the state that our wonderful Finsbury Park has been left in following the recent concerts I wanted to cry. Great swathes of grassless desert and plenty of ground churned up by lorries. That is just the physical damage caused by the concerts – don't get me started on the noise pollution and the fact that for a good many residents there is a cost to pay in terms of extra visitor permits on concert weekends.
When I dared to complain on Twitter last week I was told rather charmingly by one of the current Harringay councillors that "whats crystal clear Karen is that you don't want concerts in the Park".
Let me make it crystal clear – I am not opposed in principle to concerts in the park but what I do oppose is having the park trashed every couple of weeks over the summer months, the noise (has anyone at the council thought that residents might actually want to sit in their own back gardens in the lovely weather and not have to be subjected to essentially noise and the boom of the bass) and the cost of the extended residential parking. In usual Haringey Council shambolic style the parking restrictions were changed at the last minute last time causing confusion meaning that some folk got parking fines.
When this issue was first raised I spoke at full council (in my capacity as local council for Harringay ward at the time) my view then as it is now, a reduced number of concerts but charge the promoters more for them and the whole thing needs to be micro managed by Haringey to make sure that everything runs smoothly. This is currently not the case.
Whilst the views on the concerts are mixed amongst local residents our local councillors should be taking seriously those views which they may not share. It was their Labour council colleagues that pushed through the policy to make money out of our park despite the cost and inconvenience to local residents - it's not surprising that they are not listening!
Your Harringay ward Libdem team continue to work with residents and the council to resolve the issues concerning residents the most.
Karen Alexander
Harringay Ward Libdem Team
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Permalink Reply by Pat on
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I enjoy the concerts in Finsbury Park. As a resident of the Gardens, it is really convenient to walk back home after a concert. If I can't get a ticket, as was the case with the recent Arctic Monkeys gig, I enjoyed listening to them with a glass of wine in my garden. I use the park a lot, both with my children and as a place to run and have not been inconvenienced by the recent concerts. I notice every year that a vocal minority have a good moan. As a local resident I want to add a counterpoint to the naysayers. The constant moaning was a death knell for the wonderful Harringay Food Festival and I find it amazing that people moan about inconvenience when Pemberton Road is closed for one Sunday a month to allow children to play safely in the street. It is my park as well and I have many great memories of concerts at the park.
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Some (most?) local people may just want to use the park as a park but can't because of these activities. Surely authorities should allow Arsenal and THFC to host more of these big concerts and intensive, heavy duty activities and save the parks for their primary usage as havens of greenery and quiet, with areas reserved for sports.
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I think that most people don't have much of an opinion (disclaimer: the term 'most' is used without any evidence but since this is an online forum where it is the norm to use statements without qualifying evidence or citations, I feel I can safely use the phrase). There have been lots of comments about the park being unusable during and after concerts, but large swathes of the park were accessible (the area behind the athletics stadium). I notice that nobody is complaining that access was hindered yesterday when all these people were running around. They even had the audacity to close the road and put up barriers. I play softball in Clissold Park (for which we pay Hackney a fair bit for the privilege) and every week we have to stop our game while the same curmudgeon walks across the pitch muttering about people cluttering her park.
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If a small but civic minded bunch of residents living in the shadow of Dublin's Croke Park can force a Texan 'country singer' in a stetson to cancel his 5 consecutive nightly concerts and refund the cost of 400,000 tickets,
www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-28314675
why can't we find a bunch of similarly civic-spirited residents of Harringay Ladder capable of preventing Kober&Ko from allowing Arctic Monkeys, Wireless etc to lock down and deafen our area for days and nights on end, leaving our Park unusable in the process?
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Thanks for the link Eddie. I note that the Chief Executive of Dublin City Council said,
the promoters were told that there were serious concerns about how the concerts would affect local residents
The serious concerns of local residents here [about next year's intensified concerts programme in Finsbury Park], were in January put to our council's Scrutiny Committee. The concerns were heard, but not heeded.
Two of the then local councillors suggested a range of alternatives and compromises, but they were disregarded. These included smaller concerts. The opportunity of sending the Cabinet's policy back to them for review, was missed. There was a determination to proceed with the mega-concerts – that will also have the greatest impact on our public park.
Instead, a Finsbury Park Strategy Group was proposed.
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