Harringay, Haringey - So Good they Spelt it Twice!
Leases inside Finsbury Park.
Hugh has started a discussion on whether or not there should be a Harringay gate to Finsbury Park.
In it, somebody asked a question about a lease. Specifically, a question was asked about the one on the athletics track. This is a lease between the Mayor and Burgesses of Harringay and the Finsbury Park Sports Partnership signed in 2016 for a period of 25 years. I could email you a copy should you wish to read it.
The Harringay Gate is small and unobtrusive and currently opens onto the area given over to baseball. I believe that the baseball group has a lease over that area.
The Bowls club, a close neighbour of the athletics track beside the lake, also has a lease from Haringey. The last I heard, that lease had expired quite some time ago and was rolling over on a sort of grace and favour basis. I've also been led to believe that the membership of the Bowls Club has dwindled very greatly.
The tennis courts, which are now a very successful commercial operation, form part of the lease between Haringey and the Finsbury Park Sports Partnership. It was a condition of the lease that the courts be brought up to standard and put into public use.
Tags for Forum Posts: athletics track, harringay gate, lease
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Clive Carter on
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ADRIAN, thanks for your post.
Hugh did indeed start that discussion about a Harringay Gate.
He began the discussion in the year 2008!
Since then (from 2014) the council—under New Labour Leader Claire Kober—imposed the commercialising Major Events policy. This policy has proved to be corrosive and may be corrupting.
It started in the southern half of Finsbury Park. This regular, partial privatising then seeped into the north-eastern area: the Krankbrother quarter.
In the 17 years since Hugh's post, the northern half of Finsbury Park has been neglected.
Just look at the state of the northern paths and gaze on the unrelenting absence of maintenance.
The southern paths have been patched and re-patched after Event-damage. This treatment likely breached the terms of the Lottery Grant more than 20 years ago. As a whole, the council gives little attention to our public park. Compare the current state of Finsbury Park with Clissold Park, where Hackney Council does twice as much with half the land as Haringey does, for the public.
LOCATION
This is largely because it sits at the southernmost extremity of Haringey Borough and abuts two other Boroughs. The view from the remote council HQ tends to be, that cash spent on general park improvements is partly wasted, because two-thirds of the spending would benefit the residents of the other two Boroughs.
Public parks are open to the general public. Even if the public knows where the Borough borders run, they pay little attention to administrative boundaries.
However—more than in most London Local authorities—Haringey Borough boundaries are locked into the consciousness of Haringey "officers".
This isolated, island-mentality is partly a result of near-continuous, one-Party rule for six decades, plus, Haringey abutting six other Boroughs:
- Hackney
- Islington
- Camden
- Barnet
- Enfield
- Waltham Forest
LOCAL AUTHORITIES
Our local authority's lack of co-operation in several policy areas (FP, Planning, Transport) is infamous among the (external) Body-politic. For anyone paying close attention, this feature can sometimes be glimpsed, despite the Haringey Labour Ruling Group having as neighbours sister Party Administrations.
The isolated, island outlook should make no sense to the wider public, particularly those living on either side of the border. If attention is given to the park, then it is largely from the perspective of income-generation. Much of which is siphoned off.
Haringey has long taken a selfish, careless and proprietary view of Finsbury Park. The accounts are opaque and there is little co-operation with park-users and park-groups.
This cannot change until Borough borders change (as they did in 1965). Or, if our public park is removed from the control of Haringey Council and its entrenched Events Team.
Haringey Council relishe their power and would never cede it voluntarily.
Their poor stewardship has continued for many years and there is no prospect of change. The only hope of positive improvement is either a change in Acts of Parliament, or FP being removed from Haringey control, against their will, by either a Mayor of London or by a government. Neither are likely anytime soon.
LEASE
Haringey do not own FP.
According to the 2017 Court of Appeal Ruling, the council hold it in trust for the public. In my view, this aspect relating to the law of Trust was imprecise and the council have exploited this vagueness or ambiguity. They probably breach other aspects of the Court Ruling.
FP's status needs clarifying.
I could email you a copy [of the council's lease to the FPSP] should you wish to read it.
Adrian, I think you have my email address; could you email a copy to me please?
Thanks.
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Permalink Reply by Kathleen
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- It's understandable the bowling club membership is dwindling. I suspect the ban on parking has been a major factor with only 3 disabled parking spaces. Many people have mobility issues that do not have a blue badge. I loved walking around the lake and having a coffee in the cafe which i did at least once a week. Mobility issues have made access to the park impossible over the last few years. Parks are for people....yes..but a large section of people been denied this pleasure. It makes me laugh when those huge lorries get access for all the festivals.....go figure
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Permalink Reply by Adrian Hackney
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Kathleen
You may well be right about the small number of parking places restricting disabled access. Have you taken it up with anyone in the council? The gates seem to stay open most of the time now having previously been locked and on occasion having locked disabled visitors into the disabled car parking spaces.
You're right about the lorries it's true as well the visitors to the pines and needles Christmas tree sales.
Are you aware of pedal power https://www.pedalpowercc.org/ Which runs sessions on the athletic track and has cycles especially adapted for those with physical disabilities.
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THE council Events Team refer to the summer as the "Events Season". During this season there are hundreds—even thousands—of heavy vehicle movements through the Hornsey Gate. The Events Season is the only time when inbound traffic is marshalled.
The rest of the year, the Gate is poorly supervised by the council, reflecting the lack of care and attention outside their Events Season.
When the Gate is shut, the Police cannot always drive in when they need. Another person and I once had a lengthy conversation with frustrated Police Officers by the gate, about unsatisfactory gate supervision.
At one time, the Council's customer Thames Water installed a gate-keeper cabin just inside the Gate. Electricity for cabin lighting, cooking etc. came from a diesel generator. The frequent noise from the generator was exceeded in nuisance value by the exhaust. The council allowed the diesel exhaust fumes to be directed over the narrow pedestrian entrance to the side.
This reflected the lack of interest and lack of care—if not contempt—by the council for ordinary park users who arrive on foot and do not pay an entrance fee.
Few people are seen working in the park. Rubbish is collected but little else visible.
Due to a lack of attention to basics, Haringey's Accounts as a whole are in a shambles. The Accounts are in such a state as to be un-auditable. However it is worth noting that when the council deigns to provide accounts for Finsbury Park, they claim a whopping c.£800k is spent on park salaries. There's so little to show for it, it's hard to believe.
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