Town Hall ‘snub’ to Paralympics

Debacle over screen: Council is 'unfortunately...not able to provide the facility during the Paralympics'. Photograph: Hackney Citizen

Hackney Council has been accused of a lack of enthusiasm for the Paralympics after it removed its large screen which beamed sporting events to thousands of cheering spectators during the Olympics.

Fans who trouped down to Haggerston Park hoping to take advantage of the Indian summer to watch events including boccia and goalball on the cinema-size outdoor screen during the final days of the Games were disappointed to find it had gone.

The council said it had substituted the screen for a “full programme of events” to celebrate the Paralympics.

But wheelchair users said the fact the facility was removed prior to the start of the Paralympics showed misjudgement on the part of the Town Hall. Afshin Naghouni, an artist who is paralysed from the chest down and who spent a decade leading a London-based action network on disability, said: “It says it all really. We are not being taken seriously as a group of people.”

Unlike Hackney, neighbouring Waltham Forest, a fellow host borough for the Games, had a public screen that was functioning throughout both the Olympics and the Paralympics.

Wheelchair user Tim Rushby-Smith, who lives in Clapton with his wife and two children and was chosen as a Paralympic torchbearer because of his work promoting wheelchair tennis, said he was disappointed the Hackney screen was not left up. He said: “In an ideal world one would like to see it maintained in the same way during the Paralympics. If it was up I think it would have been very successful.”

However, he said that he had some sympathy with the council as the level of public excitement about the Paralympics might not have been predicted. He said: “While there has been an incremental increase in Paralympic sports in the past few years, I think the difference in being the host nation has had has caught a lot of people unawares.”

Maria Davis, the chair of a disability group that advises a major housing association with properties throughout the city, including in Hackney, said: “What are we saying here, that we can achieve stuff but don’t tell anybody about it? That we’re going to host the Paralympics but we’re not actually going to have any screens up in the park so people can see them?”

A Hackney Council spokesman said: “Unfortunately Hackney Council was not able to provide a big screen in Haggerston Park during the Paralympic Games but instead ran a full programme of events across the borough.

“Hackney is currently hosting the American Paralympic team and enjoyed one of the best attended torch parades in the UK. In addition, Games tickets were made available for young people and sports taster sessions were held on Hackney Downs to coincide with the Paralympic Games.”