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Harringay, Haringey - So Good they Spelt it Twice!

Five more Haringey parks are red flagged by Keep Britain Tidy

Word reaches me that five more parks were red-flagged in a second round of mystery shopping.

They are Albert Rec, Woodside Park, Bruce Castle Park, Priory Park, and Markfield Park.

At present the reports on these are not publicly available as the council are challenging some of the findings as reported below


First Round Reports now available

The reports on the first round of mystery shopped parks are now available on the Haringey Council website here

The urgent work needed to bring Downhills Park back up to Green Flag level is being done and a walk around there last week revealed new benches, bins, paths and playground equipment as well as weeded beds and barely a bit of litter to be seen. The park is back to its beautiful self once more, let's hope it can be kept that way. It is, in my humble opinion, one of the most beautiful green spaces in Haringey

Tags for Forum Posts: green flag, parks and green spaces

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Great pics Liz

Thank you. It was one of those magical winter mornings. 

Definite improvements - great to see action being taken. 

Got to wonder what the cabinet member who is in charge of parks services has got to say about this, and what they are doing about it. I would not stop there as most of the problems I suspect we are seeing are a result of decisions, or lack of them, over the past 2 years at least. So, the post holder prior to the current one is also in the frame... From a quick look that would be Kirsten Hearn (current) and Peray Ahmet- or am I being unfair here?

How much of this is to do with the Friends of Finsbury Park's court appearances to try to stop gigs in Finsbury, but having inadvertently (??) restricted funding that these gigs (I am of the belief) raise in financing the whole of Haringey's parks service?

I go through Clissold Park regularly and I have to say it is *always* absolutely spotless. Its almost as though they are waiting to catch leaves before they hit the ground. In comparison Finsbury seem grungy and unloved at best.

The gigs can only raise money to benefit Finsbury Park - which is a lot of money so one wonders what happens to it- which presumably leaves the parks budget for the rest of the parks.

This budget is small because of government cuts and the need to meet statutory responsibilities e.g for adult social care out of an ever smaller total budget. Our council tax barely touches this - councils are heavily reliant on government funding.  

That said there needs to be better management of the budget, not letting things slide to the point where it becomes a crisis, more partnership with Friends groups - who were kept in the dark about these findings- and more staffing (I suspect a combination of more staff, a council more committed to green social justice and an inner city weighting is what helps Hackney to keep Clissold spick and span).

Kirsten Hearn is the cabinet member currently  responsible. What she’s doing is what the screen shot says: getting some things sorted, challenging KBT on others and, I would hope, planning a maintenance schedule that keeps the parks in good shape once the remedial work is done. She’s newish in post dealing with problems that began way before so we shall see. 

She's anti-cycling.

It does seem just from impressions on social media that there is a vast difference between Hackney and Haringey councillors when it comes to environment and social justice. Comparing, for example, Cllr Jon Burke of Woodberry Down with just about any Haringey cllr on (to name a few) clean air, climate change, sustainable transport one sees that he is light years ahead on this stuff. 

Edit “one wonders what happens to it” - answer provided by Tris here

Our Goodgym task on Wednesday fell through stop we did some litter picking. Downhills Park was looking good, table neat and tidy beds.

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