Harringay, Haringey - So Good they Spelt it Twice!
Finsbury Park 5 a side football consultation
I have been down to Finsbury Park to have a look at the the plans and talk to some of the Haringey Council staff about the possible plans for a 5 a side football scheme. Its just initial consultation to gauge public feeling in the area - worth going down for look and a chat.
Tags for Forum Posts: finsbury park, finsbury park 5 a side, parks
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Hugh on
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I checked with one of the comms team earlier this morning (and was impressed to get a response on a Saturday). She says she's "chasing it up with the Consultation Manager". What can I say. Just reporting what I'm told.
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Permalink Reply by John McMullan on
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@Alan, if it doesn't happen I will run down the passage in my underwear.
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Permalink Reply by Alan Stanton on
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Promises, promises, John.
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But what's your view, on what I see as the fundamental principle here - grant of long lease of part of a public park to a commercial company?
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I think if you push ahead to life at the end of the lease you'll find a bunch of entirely new residents who can be hoodwinked out of what was previously 'theirs', albeit leased to a private company. Of course Ms Kober et al will assure us that this cannot happen because their lawyers are better than the private company's...
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Permalink Reply by Clive Carter on
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It'd set an important precedent for further privatisation of our park. The ratchet effect will be slow but steady and no one will notice over a period of years. In twenty years the park will be significantly reduced in size.
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Permalink Reply by Alison P on
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The comments from the comment wall (that Alan refers to above) are on page one of this post. They are overwhelmingly negative.
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Permalink Reply by Phil M on
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For what it's worth, I have just emailed Dilek Dogus with my comments:
Dear Dilek
I am writing to you regarding the proposed five-a-side football development in Finsbury Park, and I am copying in the three councillors for Harringay ward, in which I live (and which contains the park itself), as well as John Morris.
I appreciate that the online consultation period for this proposed development ended in July, but last week Cllr Stanton said on Harringay Online that no decision had yet been made, so presumably you are still receptive to the views of local residents on this matter. (Although on your website, it does say: "Subject to the consultation process and planning permission, the Council will advertise to seek a suitable partner to take this project forward, and would expect substantial access for community use of the centre at off peak times, as well as receiving some form of financial payment for reinvestment in the park." That to me suggests that a decision has already been made, and that the proposed development will go ahead. I hope I'm wrong and that instead it is just very clumsily and ambiguously worded.)
While I applaud most initiatives to encourage people to participate in sports, I am afraid I strongly object to this development for two main reasons.
First, I object to the council proposing to lease out a large chunk of a free, public park to a profit-driven organisation for commercial gain. At present, the site is available to anybody to use for free. Under the proposals, only those prepared to pay a fiver will be able to use this space. Chances are, that will mean employed men in their 20s and 30s, a small subgroup of the population. This is effectively privatising a well-used public space, and I am frankly appalled that a Labour-run council is even contemplating such a regressive and unfair move. If I'd wanted Tory policies from my council, I'd have voted Tory; I don't and I didn't.
Second, the plan to provide parking for an extra 83 vehicles, which is wrong in so many ways. Some of us go to the park to escape traffic. It's one of the very few parts of the borough where it's currently possible to get some respite from the car-filled streets. It's a fairly simple equation: more car parking spaces will generate more car journeys. That's more congestion, more pollution, more noise. And not just in the park, but all the way to and from the footballers' home or place of work. So that's extra traffic on Wightman Road, extra traffic on Green Lanes, extra traffic on Seven Sisters Road. I don't think that is the way forward. Wouldn't any right-thinking council be trying to discourage unnecessary car journeys for the good both of its residents and the wider environment?
And quite apart from the environmental aspect, there is simply no need for more parking in the park. Finsbury Park and Manor House have fantastic transport links: there are two tube lines, two overground lines within easy walking distance and numerous and frequent bus services connecting the area to the rest of north London. Surely anybody capable of playing a physically intensive game of five-a-side football would be capable of walking the short distance (500 yards at most, I'd have thought) to Finsbury Park, Manor House, Harringay Green Lanes or Harringay station?
I apologise if you have already seen my comments on this matter. You may have done - I posted them online on the council's consultation page two months ago while answering the leading questions on your questionnaire. Yet still they have not appeared there. I do not understand the delay - what is difficult about collating various emails and then putting them online? I have been assured by council staff that they will be there very soon, although I've now been told this for about a month, so I'm starting to question what their definition of soon is. What I do know is that everybody I have spoken to (friends who live nearby and regularly use the park; posters on Harringay Online; people who currently use that space - Pedal Power, basketball players, runners, etc) has been overwhelmingly opposed to this plan. I hope the council will listen to all these voices (and, indeed, acknowledge them soon by actually publishing all the comments made online) and take notice of people's concerns, because if you start trying to turn our parks into profit-making ventures you will destroy what makes them so special.
I am sure that you are very busy, but I would appreciate a reply in this matter.
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A thoughtful and thought-provoking comment, Phil.
It's worrying that you've been promised your comments would be posted on the Council's consultation webpage, but this hasn't happened.
I confess that I can't see on that page where people's online contributions can be found. (Am I missing something obvious?) As a councillor I'd welcome being able to browse through them.
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The last I heard was from Erica Owusu-Boateng on 19 August, who said:
"We endeavoured to publish them on Monday 16th August as stated, but this has been delayed due to officer work load.
I will inform you once details have been published."
Given that websites such as this one can immediately show any comments made (and the council's own planning pages usually put up comments within a few days, so it's not like they don't have the technology), I don't see how it could take two months to do. Somebody more paranoid than me might suggest that they are deliberately suppressing an overwhelmingly negative response to their suggestion...
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Great letter Phil.
Your comments about the 'survey' are interesting and make me realise that they haven't published any of the results have they - its not just the comments that aren't available? That does seem very odd. Although from memory the nature of the questions was such that they wouldn't really show support or opposition, as they kind of assumed the proposals would go ahead.
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Thanks, Alison. If I receive a reply, I'll let you know.
To my mind, the survey has been shambolic from start to finish. The online questionnaire seemed to be carefully designed to elicit positive responses (I forget the exact questions, but they were along the lines of "Do you think better signposting and lighting in the park would be good or bad?" And there was little opportunity to express dissent other than in the comments section, right at the very end).
And there seemed little attempt to get many people to participate and express their opinions, effectively disenfranchising many from the democratic process. Living on Burgoyne Road, I received notice of the proposed development through the post, so knew what I had to do to register my disapproval. Friends further up the Ladder appear not to have had any warning. And given that the park sits on the borders of Islington and Hackney - and is thus not just used by residents of Haringey - it seems odd that nobody there was consulted about a fundamental change to their local area.
Now the council has had some feedback from residents, yet it has not published anything, even though the consultation period ended more than two months ago. It all looks slightly fishy.
Does anybody know whether the "survey", being so biased and so incompetently carried out, undermines the legality of the council's apparent desire to go through with this? I would be interested to know...
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