Harringay, Haringey - So Good they Spelt it Twice!
Friends of Finsbury Park to Mount Legal Challenge to Wireless
The Friends of Finsbury Park want to stop the Wireless Concert occupying "a third" of the park for two week in mid-summer
The Friends of Finsbury Park have set a course to mount a legal challenge to Haringey Council's renting out Finsbury Park for the Wireless Festival
The Friends say of the Wireless Festival, "It is almost impossible to comprehend its vast scale and the impact it has on Finsbury Park. Last year’s Wireless Festival covered almost one third of the size of the Park, surrounded by an oppressive 8ft high green metal barrier to keep Park users out, in some areas stretching as far as the eye could see.
"Many local residents don't have gardens so the park serves as a vital outdoor amenity, and as events such as Wireless Festival take weeks to set up and take down the public is denied access to what should be public space.
"Last year’s Wireless Festival, which was held over two summer weekends, attracted crowds of 50,000 per day causing massive disruption, damage, excessive noise, and antisocial behaviour in streets surrounding the Park.
Relationships between the Friends group and the Council have long been frosty. But now it appears they are breaking down altogether with meetings being cut short or cancelled and now a legal challenge. A spokesman for the friends group said "We've tried everything to get Haringey Council to enter into discussions with us, but they refuse to listen, stopping all public consultation and ignoring stakeholder groups, local residents and park users".
The group is now launching a legal challenge to stop the Council staging the festival and similar major events in Finsbury Park. I am not clear at this stage what the basis of the legal challenge is, but I'm guessing the clue might well be in a recent statement:
Finsbury Park is a public park that was formed by virtue of the Finsbury Park Act 1857; it is registered as a Grade II Historic Park and Garden and is also Metropolitan Open Land.
The group say they will have to pay up to £35,000 plus VAT for issuing the proceedings and having a one day hearing in the High Court. To raise the required monies, a crowdfunfing page was set up on Monday. As of today the page has attracted over £5,000 funding, about 12% of the total amount they may require.
Alongside the preparations for the legal challenge, the friends group have also lodged an official objection to the festival.
Tags for Forum Posts: finsbury park, finsbury park events, wireless festival
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Junior Bennett on
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"Not helped that the ringleader (on this forum at least) is an opposition councillor"
Mnn never considered that. This is essentially a privately run forum though right?
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Permalink Reply by Toni Ramon Gallo on
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Hello everybody!has anyone noticed Wightman road closure has caused gridlock in Haringay!!I fortunately don't live very near the Park but going ahead with this event when the roads in the area are already gridlocked makes no sense to me at all.Bands,engineers staff facilities,etc will come in vehicles only adding to the traffic problems.The Council overlooked this did they?
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Permalink Reply by Pat on
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It's gridlocked most weekends, regardless and that was before the Wightman Road closure. Green Lanes Harringay was gridlocked 20 years back when Ladder Roads were 2-way streets. So how does the London Marathon manage every year with extensive road closures? Is everything shut down or do people adapt for the short period?
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Permalink Reply by Penny A on
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I understand that Pat having lived here for over 20 years. I guess I was ruminating on the impact of major events and the challenge of traffic at this particular time and relating it to my ill advised trip to Sainsbury's at 2pm on the Wireless Friday afternoon last year!! It was crazy and out of character for a normal Friday. For the record I'm in favour of events (I worked in events and project management for 30 years) and use of Finsbury Park. However I was thrown by the images of damage to the Park and potential added congestion to the area. I have an open mind and was interested to read Tris's reply on the importance of Finsbury Park event income. I guess a key question is how irreparable is the damage caused by these large scale events and what is the cost of making good? It would be good to have the budget line for that as well or is that covered within the 'contribution to the maintenance and running costs of the park'? I'd also be interested to see a statement from the Parks Department on the Friends issue. From past projects I've done I know Park Departments are skilled, extremely committed and in my experience will not agree with anything that will cause damage or compromise health and safety.
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That's why I always walk to Sainsbury's. I want to state for disclosure purposes that I like events in Finsbury Park because I enjoyed them enourmously back in the day and even recently, even though the Wireless isn't my cup of tea, and I want others, including my kids to have the opportunity to enjoy similar events. In terms of damage, as I understand it, the event organisers have to repair any damage. I notice that no one ever complains about the footballers who churn up the grass on the Seven Sisters end during the winter or the tag rugby players using studs on the dry grass (of which I am one). During the festivals I continue to run through the park and they have never curtailed my activities, which is very different from this winter when a large group of drug users used to congregate at the Seven Sisters/Finsbury Park gate, making it user to use in the evenings.
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Thanks Tris, very enlightening! And yes, in my experience contracts would include making good?mHow did you get your info, is it all public access stuff?
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Permalink Reply by Clive Carter on
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Penny, Finsbury Park lies in MP David Lammy's Parliamentary Constituency. He's renewed his earlier criticism of Wireless: the Hackney Gazette has published an article on the subject here.
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Thanks Clive, I have a lot of respect for David Lammy. Interesting and longer article on this issue too.
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Permalink Reply by John D on
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Nothing like a bit of exaggeration to destroy your argument.
Even Turnpike Lane is not currently " gridlocked " . It's just very congested but it's moving.
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Permalink Reply by Paul Harding on
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Perhaps there could be a 'Friends Of Festivals in Finsbury Park' association set up.
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Permalink Reply by John McMullan on
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I agree. These festivals have only one problem as far as I am concerned and that is that they take up too much of the park for too long and treat us residents like sh*t. It is very important for local youngsters to be able to get to things like this that they otherwise could not afford to go to. So everyone else can bugger off to Latitude and Glastonbury, pay hundreds of pounds and leave the poorer kids sniffling into their X-Boxes and Tinder.
It's not about the money, it's about their attitude to what they have been leased. They think they own it. They don't. That needs to be made very, very clear.
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