I have been felled with my first flu of the year and I have no doubt about its cause.I’ve spent recent days standing by one of the entrances to Battersea Park , still dressed for the summer, as the days have grown more wintry, trying to get local residents to sign a petition.
So there you have it Mad dogs and Englishmen.The park is not short of canines or eccentrics so I have been in good company, and generally treated with respect by people delighted to do their bit to try and save our beloved community based parks police from being axed by the bean counters at Wandsworth Council.
Tomorrow night a majority of Conservative Councillors plan to ignore hundreds of signatures I and other volunteers have collected. They will line up and vote in favour of the disbandment of the 23 Parks Police, and their replacement by sixteen Metropolitan police officers and a team of five ‘events’ staff .
This is local authority consultation in action. Ask local people what they think about something, then when they have given you an answer that doesn’t fit in with your plans, you promptly ignore it, however misguided the plans.
And there is no doubt in my mind that Wandsworth Council is about to make a huge mistake which will come back to haunt it politically when in three years time their agreement with the Met comes up for renewal and there won’t be enough officers to police London’s streets safely, let alone open spaces.
Please explain to me why it takes a special force of 23 park officials to keep Law & Order in a Public Place. Lets say they earn around £40.000 p/a + social security, etc., thats nearing 1.5 million pounds! Is Battersea so dangerous that the criminal element spills over into the park and Wandsworth Council required such a large force to contain them? If so, lets hope Chelsea FC never build their stadium in that Godforsaken Southern borough and stick to the civilized North……