Finsbury Park Group urges Haringey Council to lock gates

Historic shrub beds in Grade II listed Finsbury Park ripped apart by sex traders – the gates must be locked at night

To read the article in Turkish: https://olaygazete.co.uk/turk-toplumu/the-friends-of-finsbury-park-kapilar-gece-kilitlenmeli.html

Summary

• Our park has become a hotbed of crime and anti social behaviour with damage to valuable wildlife areas due to the gates not being locked at night 

• This is an acutely dangerous health and safety issue for the community, particularly families with children and pets, with sex and drugs debris visible to all 

• The Friends of Finsbury Park call for the park to be locked at night, as is the norm with all similar parks, with a £1.2 annual budget it’s inexcusable not to act on this matter

Concerned residents have reported to police a recent disturbing event whereby five shrub beds in the nature-rich, north side of Finsbury Park have been ripped apart for sex anti social behaviour (ASB). Certain areas of the park are constantly littered with condoms, soiled tissues, human excrement, drugs/needles, men’s ripped clothing. More disturbingly, in this recent destructive event, a child’s shoe was observed amongst the sex debris. 

This is an urgent health and safety and safeguarding issue as well as a wildlife crime. Local witnesses have observed mass orgies happening in this location with large numbers of naked men having sex across five shrub beds. Other residents have reported sex/drug taking in this area until the early hours. It is not appropriate for residents to come across this when passing through the park or for children to play in a space that is littered with sex/drugs debris and human excrement. The pink child’s boot at the site near condoms has been reported to the police.

The park’s resident user group, The Friends of Finsbury Park, now calls upon Simon Farrow, Head of Parks and Leisure at Haringey Council, to seriously address this long standing problem. The most obvious solution is to lock the park at night as is the case with many other London parks of similar size (Victoria Park, Southwark Park, Burgess Park, Battersea Park, Clissold Park) although this might not solve all the issue, it would act as a deterrent to people lurking looking for sex from dusk onwards. Haringey Council’s response to the Friends request was met with a dismissive reply that does not acknowledge the gravity and scale of the problem (hidden knives, sex/drug dealing, deadwood being set on fire and a sex meet up site).  

With the number of serious past sexual assaults and a murder in recent years, we also call upon the police to do much more to ensure the safety of the park and its users. 

With an annual budget of £1.2m it is inexcusable that Finsbury Park is allowed to deteriorate in this way.