Harringay online

Harringay, Haringey - So Good they Spelt it Twice!

From the Haringey Council website

Plans to build 10 new five-a-side football pitches in Finsbury Park are to be put out for public consultation.

If approved, the pitches would be set up at the tarmac area close to the Endymion Road entrance.

Apart from the pitches, there would also be floodlighting, a new changing pavilion and parking spaces. It is anticipated that there would be free or subsidised use of the pitches during off-peak hours.


With that odd logic that governs the council website, they do not appear to have put a link to the actual consultation info, but have no fear, I have tracked it down and you can read it here

Consultation appears to be by having 2 'open days' and inviting emailed comments on the proposal.

Tags for Forum Posts: consultation, finsbury park, finsbury park 5 a side, parks, sport

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Replies to This Discussion

Well that's where I thought the new secondary school was going but I was wrong. It's going here. The cranes are out and building work is "progressing".

Anyway, 5-a-side football on Mary Nuener Rd?
Further to my post earlier, I have now received this reply from the Sports Hub Officer. Does anyone know who operates the centres she's talking about? And can 10,000 square metres really be right?

Morning,

The proposed figure of 10 pitches and parking for up to 80 cars is the basic template for football centres, as this was common of the sites we visited, which included the Tottenham Power League Centre and the Chingford Goals Centre.



Due to the vast size of the tarmac area, approximately 10,000sqm, we anticipate that it should accommodate a football centre with the above features. However this will be explored further following the feedback from the consultation.

We plan to produce draft visuals for the consultation, using the templates/layout of existing centres, which will be shared with the public once completed.



Regards,



Erica Owusu-Boateng

Sports Hub Officer
OK, so they definitely have already decided to put a 5-a-side football centre there and they have an idea of a couple of different companies to run it.

which will be shared with the public once completed

Nice...
Yes, 10,000 sq mtrs - just right for my 100 allotments, John. Now if they'll just remove that tarmac & concrete base, decontaminate what our forebears left us 150 years ago and restore the topsoil, we can get down to business.
"Finsbury Park is not a common and it already has a fence around it. We (FoFP) checked this out when the large commercial concerts were underway. Clapham Common Friends group managed to stop commercial concerts because it (Clapham common) is a common and therefore can't be fenced."

Anne, are you saying the FOFP were instrumental in stopping the concerts? I only ask as I was very sad that the Fleadh stopped for good just before we moved into the area :(
As the festivals in Finsbury Park became larger and more numerous during the late 90's and early noughties, making the Council more and more money, the FOFP complained more and more about the number of festivals in the park taking up so much space during the main usage times of a public park, (the Council promised two a year and not during school holidays then went back on their promise and some years had as many as 7), about the level of noise late at night, about the way the festivals were managed, the damage to play areas and trees and lack of consultation with local people- ie they did their job as local custodians of Finsbury Park. The effect of all this was minimal. The main reason the Fleadh finished was because in the last couple of years the attendance figures were very low and it wasn't financially viable.
As a councillor I've been reading this thread with great interest. Not least because it raises borough-wide issues such as income generation and sponsorship; and leases to private companies over public land. (I suggested people might also want to read Anna Minton's book Ground Control.)

I’ve spoken briefly to Cllr Dhiren Basu the “cabinet” member, and to John Morris, Assistant Director responsible and mentioned this thread. I also contacted Claire Kober, council leader.

John Morris told me that things are only at an exploratory stage, and there is only one initial "cabinet" report - which is on the council website,

I’ve asked that the process is made as transparent and open as possible; with any new documents made available for download. I suggested something like the spirit of "deliberative democracy" - current initiatives worldwide which aim at properly informed, shared discussion and decision-making.

Plainly, everyone who lives around Finsbury Park and park users further afield should have an opportunity to find out about and comment on this proposal if they wish. The viewpoints and questions from residents active on HoL are a valuable part of this.
The legacy of Thatcher (playing field sell offs of the 80's) still lives on and under the guise of Labour. It seems to be very much accepted and part of any mainstream political party policy, independent members aside that is.
I am delighted to hear this from a Haringey Councillor. Let us hope that the days when an Islington resident was told by a Haringey Councillor that he had no right to comment on Finsbury Park, and when a consultation document "A Vision for Finsbury Park" supported by over 5000 local residents was completely ignored by Haringey Council are at an end.
I wish you knew who it was. It might then tie in with another currently hot topic.
Alan, it would be reassuring if Harringay Council could commit to have a full consultation that is open to all users of FP, including those users who live in the other boroughs whose borders meet in Finsbury Park, namely Hackney & Islington.

We learnt earlier this week, that because the Whittington Hospital is within the remit of Islington NHS Trust, there was no consultation over the setting up of an Urgent Care Centre there for patients and residents in Haringey - hopefully that won't happen again for future consultations regarding Whittington Hospital or North Middlesex Hospital. We have seen that elected representatives all too often only see the small picture, which is their geographical fief, and not the wider world that the rest of us live in. I know that unelected appointees have scant regard for such niceties, and we all know what we think about them!

As these discussions are only at an 'exploratory stage', perhaps the next time you speak to your colleague, Cllr Basu, you might point this out to him, and ask him for a committment to consult widely outside South Central Haringey. I also take this opportunity to remind you of Haringey Council's well publicised problems with their 'flog-it' policies regarding Alexandra Palace. Would it be too much to expect some form of tri-borough committee to deal with this? I think the Friends of FP deserve & need to be kept in the loop at all times, and their views taken very seriously.
Lynne Featherstone.
Irrelevant fact Number 183:
Did you know the 'posh' way to pronounce Featherstone is 'Foster' ? (i'm not making it up)

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