Harringay, Haringey - So Good they Spelt it Twice!
'Tough Mudder' in Finsbury Park
The Tough Mudder event, which is taking place in Finsbury Park this weekend, consists of running routes and assault course challenges spread over many areas of the park. From the pictures, the aim seems to be to get as mud-covered as possible. Tickets cost £100.
While it's great that people use the parks for exercise and relaxation, a large number of people running together on already soggy ground is going to cause serious damage to the grass and woodland of the park, just as it's coming into it's most beautiful season. The muddy fallout from a similar event on Hampstead Heath last year took many months to recover, and our park is significantly smaller.
It breaks my heart how little the council prizes our natural green spaces and is willing to sacrifice them in this way in order to make money, even under the aegis of 'health and wellbeing.'
Tags for Forum Posts: finsbury park , mudder", tough
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Annie McDonald on
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There is a Friends of Finsbury Park meeting on the 25th April at the Mosque under the bridge in Finsbury Park. 7.30 start. If you are interested in what’s happening to our park come along. I am very unhappy at what’s happened to our park, it’s still not recovered from previous years and we have less wildlife. You will be surprised at how many people love the park. Do try and come.
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Permalink Reply by Alan Stanton on
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Clive Carter (a former member of HoL) keeps me posted on Finsbury Park events. As an active member of the Friends Group he - and no doubt others - are often angry at the apparently insensitive way our park lands are commercially exploited by a Council which seems to have forgotten - or failed to learn - the wider lessons of Covid and Climate Change.
Clive has also mentioned contractors vehicles churning up mud.
Our elected Council should be guardian angels and co-champions of our parks. Not business managers to exploit them.
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I live next to the park and love to go with my kids and watch all the people having fun. Many are raising money for charities. It’s a brilliant event. Finsbury Park isn’t reserved as a wildlife sanctuary and isn’t solely for the gentle dog walkers, ramblers and bird watches, it’s an urban park providing our community and our great city with a valuable space for a diverse range of outdoor activities - including big sports events, funfairs and concerts for our young people. This is Hackney, not Hampstead - don’t tame us and don’t gentrify us!
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It doesn't have to be badly managed events or no events, but the current entrenched oppositional approaches of the FoFP and Haringey mean there's no room for negotiation. It's been like this for twenty years, must be about time for a more creative dialogue!
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Permalink Reply by PeterPiper on
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Hmm, I don't think that is a fair characterisation of the Friends of Finsbury Park. Its fairer to think of them as 'critical' friends, for without their efforts in the past, the income raised from commercial events would end up in the LBH "pot". Thanks to FoFP, those monies are now ring-fenced to be spent within the park. FoFP have raised a large sum of money to enlarge the skate-park for instance. They support Edible Landscapes, and the orchard planting etc., and generally promote benefits the park brings. It's correct to say that they are highly critical of the (dis)organisation surrounding Live Nation events and the ridiculous high walls that segregate the park for their festivals such as "Wireless", but they are far from being alone in that regard.
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from Feb 2002 (21 years ago)
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Permalink Reply by Geraldine on
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We are not losing kids having fun. We are losing the wild spaces of nature that were there when I was a kid in Harringay.
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Permalink Reply by Maddy on
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And the grass on which families can picnic and people can play games or sit in shade under trees. This just looks like vandalism.
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Permalink Reply by PaulG on
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Nope, it’s Haringey. And believe it or not, it’s perfectly possible to have fun without wrecking the natural world. Oh, and what makes you think nature isn’t something of value to *the whole* community…?
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Permalink Reply by KP on
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No this isn't Hackney! I was in the park yesterday while it was going on and was shocked by the mess it had created to the whole park, not just a small section of it. With hundreds of runners and the fun fair the whole area was anything but a peaceful environment to relax in which is exactly what a park should be. Many of us don't have gardens and should be able to sit on the grass when the weather is warm. As others have mentioned these kind of runs should be in the countryside or maybe in woods or a forest not a park where muddy trails have to be created. Another disastrous decision by Haringey Council
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