Dear London Fields User 

We have been trying to organise regular meetings for some time now but have had difficulty with meeting venues. We have now made arrangements with Alan at FREE FORM ARTS TRUST to hold them on a bimonthly basis at their “HOTHOUSE” at 274 Richmond Road London Fields starting Wed 28th July at 7.30pm with an exposure of current problems. We plan to hold our Annual General Meeting on Wed. Sep. 29th at 7.30pm and the final meeting of the year on Wed. Nov. 24th at 7.30pm. 

Rubbish in the park

We are having so many problems at the moment with selfish people hogging the space in London Fields and leaving the park afterwards as an untidy dump. Leaving plastic & paper, empty cans, empty bottles & bottle tops and of course the ubiquitous fag ends.  Because some people have been allowed to get away with small BBQ’s, others now come along with piles of wood and have full sized bonfires, with one actually on the cricket pitch, increasingly giving our park a scorched earth appearance. Talk about giving an inch and taking a mile!  Other outsiders are writing about these freedoms on websites, encouraging others to come along to the free for all from all over London. There are uncontrolled parties with heavy drinking lasting well through the night accompanied with loud music on large sound systems. With other drunks sleeping it off into the morning. Toilet facilities are vandalised while others drunkenly relive themselves anywhere. London Fields, a small park with a large mix of people living close by all around, of all ages, all nationalities, most of whom are trying to sleep of a night.  Our wining of the green flag award in future is in serious doubt; along with the damage to the environment and wildlife the park now suffers. Not least of this is the noise pollution of a night, with the council noise abatement people apparently unable to stop the anti-social behaviour. While the police are little better and appear to avoid confrontation instead of keeping the peace. This new input of people is now becoming unbearable for the local population. The council and police must do something urgently, to halt this rapid slide to anarchy. Respect for our park with legal enforcement of bylaws must be retained and the message broadcast that London Fields is not the party venue of the moment any more. 

Possible actions:

• Official notices for banning burning and night raves (Clissold Park has anti BBQ signs)
• Petition of residents adjacent to London Fields
• Delegation to see Mayor Pipe
• Open letter to area police commissioner 

  Getting Funding for London Fields

  We have a long list of future developments and improvements and have talked about funding them before. Now we have a full time park development officers (Bruce Irving) who could assist us with obtaining funding. We must also call on the assistance of as many of the members who have past experience with funding and the bureaucratic paperwork it requires. 

  Toilets and Vandalism

  The toilets are constantly being closed due to persistent vandalism. It has been regularly vandalised for years. Before it was refurbished a couple of years ago the user group suggested that the toilet fittings be replaced with the much more rugged stainless steel fittings in the future. We were aware of the approximately £600 per month that vandalism was costing then. We should ask for this to be as done soon as possible, the extra expense will be easily saved with the longer life of the tougher equipment. 

  Regards 

  Mike Martin