Clissold Park concerns

IT is great news that Clissold Mansion is to be restored and opened up for public use and the landscape around improved to show it off properly.

There are a lot of other things that come under the ‘restoration’ works and maybe not all of them will be as welcome.

Clissold Park is a lovely, green, tranquil and relaxing place and provides wonderful opportunities for play and sports – but think of the impact of a skate and wheels park in the corner of the Park behind the Town Hall, just next to the tennis courts.

The old Redgra will be used for a long overdue extension to the playground and will be landscaped to provide quiet sitting and picnic areas, but also a caged multi-use sports area and a big wheels park along the Queen Elizabeth Walk side.

The noise will be the first thing to hit you as you come to the park from Stoke Newington Church Street, and tennis players are going to love it!

It is also the most residential corner of the park, under the windows of the Lordship South Estate flats and next to houses in Queen Elizabeth’s Walk.

The Redgra is a big ugly empty space and it is great to have it re-modelled to be more attractive, but we are going also to lose the freedom and flexibility afforded by its all-weather unstructured and protected nature – tai chi, cricket, football, boules, rounders, kite flying, remote control toy cars and planes, just meeting up to kick a ball around on a wet afternoon after school … no room for all that anymore.

If I were a cynical person, I might think that the skate and wheels track has been included in these plans so that a box somewhere can be ticked.

If, like me, you have concerns, I suggest you write to Deputy Mayor Karen Alcock (Karen.Alcock@hackney.gov.uk) and the Cabinet Member for Community Services, Cllr Nargis Khan (Nargis.Khan@hackney.gov.uk).

Maybe it wouldn’t be too late to reconsider the best way to use the space so that everyone can enjoy it.

Penny Crick
Stoke Newington

2 Comments

  1. Richard on Monday 12 October 2009 at 11:03

    I think you’re overreacting to the proposed ‘wheels area’. I’ve been a regular Clissold park user for many years and I rarely see the east? end of the Redgra utilised in any way – model aeroplanes never seen ’em – same for kites (I sometimes fly kites on the NW side of the park). My point is that there are plenty of other open spaces in the park. A ‘wheels area’ would be a small (in terms of area) yet valuable addition to the park.

    Do you have any evidence to support your assertions about the noise levels?



  2. Dominic Sutton on Tuesday 27 October 2009 at 12:15

    The very idea that all parts of the park should available for everyone to use is simply a nonsense. The toddlers area is no use for people without young children, the large tennis court area is no use to someone who just wants to walk for their exercise to give just two examples. The point is that the park as a whole is great precisely because there are are lots of different areas that cater for the many and diverse interests of the people in the area.

    Is it really being suggested that when kids (and indeed many adults) want to spend time out doors, very active, learning and playing together in a skate area of the park that it would be much better if they were not encouraged to do this? What would you prefer: that they do it in other parts of the park and surrounding estates in areas shared by all sorts of other people who would rather not get run over by a learner roller-blader? Or is it that you’d rather they stayed at home and played a nice, safe, quiet skate-boarding game on their XBox so the park remains “tranquil” and “relaxing” for the people who want it that way, regardless of what others may want.

    This strikes me of Nimbyism of the very worst kind. Skate, BMX and roller-blading are superb ways for children (and again I mention also adults) to get exercise and they often suit those who do not have interest in team sports or do not engage with sports at school. Furthermore they are, as a group, activities that are now practised by a great many young people and that there is nowhere dedicated for them to do it in their park (and I stress “their”) in this age of increasing concern about the health and fitness of all age groups is verging on the criminal. With a good facility there I suspect a great many more children will be tempted to try these activities and that habit of regular, out-door activity once learned may have a profound effect on their health in alter life.

    I am sorry if you think this a strong reaction. I will not be a user of this new area but I have also never played boule, flown a kite, held a knitting group or anything else in that dark, empty corner of the park. I know of one man who occasionally uses it to practise martial arts but he also uses many other parts of the park. All users of the park should be catered for as widely as possible – a skate and wheels area in this virtually redundant area will address what is at present a serious flaw in our amazing local park.



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