Park 'wrecked' by council gardeners

nlnews@archant.co.uk
04 February 2010

COUNCIL gardeners have "hacked up" a cherished park by razing to the ground dozens of plants and shrubs under "barmy" health and safety orders, say residents.

Visitors were stunned to finds parts of Hollickwood Park, off Sydney Road, Muswell Hill, looking barren after Barnet Council instructed workers to rip out vegetation.

Outraged neighbours, who claimed it was carried out against their wishes, slammed the "devastation" - and ridiculed claims that it was done to protect children playing in the nearby playground.

Audrey Wood, 79, of nearby Alexandra Road, said: "I walked around and thought, 'Oh my gosh, what have they done?' It's a lovely area, why did they have to cut down all these lovely plants, because they are essential to the area."

Mrs Wood says this is the latest in a long line of problems with the park, claiming the council also let the park's pond, once teeming with wildlife, fall into ruin and become a makeshift tip.

Gardeners have also cut back overgrown shrubs near the entrance to the park, but it is the chopping of plants around the playground that have touched a raw nerve.

Kim Mason, 51, who walks her dog through the park every day and lives in Pembroke Road, said: "They've done this without any consultation and they have really gone hell for leather - it's been completely hacked up.

"From the council's perspective they wanted to make the play area safer but the plants were not high enough that you could not leave little children alone next to them."

She also claimed it was part of a bigger problem of neglect, claiming the council either ignores the park completely or destroys it with "overkill".

Childminder Nikki Cox, 42, of Alexandra Road, Muswell Hill,said measures had not made the park safer for children, adding: "There was no need to chop the plants down to nothing. I know some residents have asked for it to be thinned out but certainly not like this.

"I reckon the council would be quite happy for people to stop using the park completely, so they could sell it on."

Residents were hoping to persuade the council to build allotments next to the park, which is tucked away from the main road, in a bid to increase visitor numbers.

A council spokesman said the pruning was carried out on the advice of residents to "make the area more inviting" and "reclaim" overgrown areas, adding: "Parents said children weren't visible once in the play area due to overgrown shrubbery.

"Brambles were also encroaching onto the play area, damaging its surface and making it difficult for maintenance crews to keep clean and tidy.