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How do you feel about funfairs?

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[Sequel is here]

The two funfairs that visited this summer would like to come back in March and April 2012. How do we feel about that? Did you go? Did you enjoy them? Did you notice any problems? Are they too close together in time? Should they go somewhere else in the park? Please let us know.

Some thoughts:

  • Both fairs are aimed at families with kids. They enclose the fairs and charge £1 for entry. They don’t allow alcohol or groups of unaccompanied youths, and they use tokens for rides. The Leabridge ward Community Action Panel (CAP) is apparently happy with them, as is the Beecholme Estate TRA.
  • Some Casimir Road residents raised concerns with MUG about street behaviour nearby.
  • Irvin’s in July broke the rules about protecting trees and grass (see photos below). In view of the rules about keeping vehicles away from trees, perhaps the arboretum is not a suitable area for them.
  • Both fairs want to visit for 2 weekends. One of them is going to be closed on the weekdays in between, just occupying part of the park. Counting their set-up and take-down days the two fairs will be on Millfields for 4 of 8 weeks in March and April. Is that too much?

Irvin’s put a pool here in July. Grass still hasn’t recovered in October.

Council rules say: No plastic or rubber carpet underlay shall be placed on the grass at any time. Coconut matting or similar materials shall not be laid on the grass for more than 3 days. No wooden flooring shall be laid on the grass for more than 10 days.       

Irvin’s parked this articulated cab right next to a young tree for a fortnight. Tree roots extend underground to 12 times the trunk diameter, so the roots were being crushed by the weight, and asphyxiated as air was forced out of the soil. Vehicles were parked as close as they could get to other trees in the arboretum. But most of the young trees have crowns at head height, so the vehicles couldn’t get as close as with this narrow Lombardy poplar.  They may have been breaking the rules at other trees too – but we didn’t get photos.

 

The wheel marks at the same spot three days after the end of the fair show that the HGV was just a metre away from the tree trunk (the length of my jacket on the ground).

Council rules say:   Vehicles shall be parked on boards / tarmac at all times.   The Hirer shall ensure that no vehicles park next to the base of trees, even on tarmac areas. The following requirements for the distance of vehicles from the base of trees shall be:  

Cars – 4 metres

Vans, caravans – 5 metres
HGVs, coaches, plant vehicles and generators – 7 metres 

Park equipment stolen for 3rd time

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For the third time, the Millfields gardeners’ lockup was broken into last week in broad daylight, and all the tools stolen. Thieves drove a van in at 11 in the morning, cut the padlock, loaded up and left. It seems the theft isn’t covered by insurance.  So once again, the gardeners are left without the equipment they need to get on with their work. 
There seem to be two underlying problems with the park storage –
  • The depot is shared between the park and Hackney Homes. As a result, the depot can be open with no park staff present, and HH staff don’t challenge strangers monkeying with the park lockups and equipment.
  • There doesn’t seem to have been any upgrading of locks. A simple box around the padlock would defeat bolt cutters, a pretty standard feature on industrial containers like these.

Maybe if MUG had taken it up with a councillor there would have been action — but why should that have to be how things work?