Now that mega events have departed our park for this year, it’s time to share with Friends and visitors the large amount of work needed to restore the park to its former condition. This is a summary of points made to Enfield Council:
The exhibition table has been flattened with numerous areas of dead grass and grass scrubbed off – little surprise after several weeks of heavy gear and plating standing on it. Over half the table is showing some degree of loss or stress. This is not lightweight or superficial damage; compaction of the total surface has impaired its ability to recover without assistance. This eventuality will surely have been planned for and we expect action to follow immediately. Ruts proliferate where heavy trucks have passed. These require infilling and reseeding.
Metal tracking, left in place for weeks, has scored the surface and sub surface, not only on the table but the verges of the approach road too. These areas require attention and reseeding.
Cleaning the site has not been to an acceptable standard and much confetti remains with shards of plastic cups.
Professional treatment is required to worn parts to permit maximum recovery now to establish a base as the growing season comes to an end; next spring would be an unacceptable delay in promoting recovery. Otherwise, how will families enjoy the playing field safely if it remains rutted and bare?
Damage to the Avenue of Lime trees; Enfield Council, despite taking significant income from our park, has allocated no money to replace ageing limes; we do not accept that over 100 limes will just be allowed to rot away and not be replaced as they age. This is unacceptable to everyone. Now is a good re-planting time.
A safety bollard along the entry road has been knocked down by an impaired BMW driver. How this car gained entry to a densely pedestrianised area in the first place begs questions of site management during events.
The bollards serve as a means of securing the pavement from passing traffic. Another bollard, lost earlier this year is also awaiting replacement; the council will be culpable of neglect if it does not act to protect the many thousands of pedestrians who access the park along this route.
The Cockfosters Grade 2 listed gate has been smashed off its footing and the foundation itself displaced, by an oversized vehicle belonging to an event equipment contractor. The gate is too narrow for such vehicles, and this will not change.
The gate’s north pillar, adjacent brickwork and top feature will require major professional rebuilding, for the second time in two years. The heritage wooden gate too has taken heavy scoring. The gate is now propped up with scaffolding, and we do not want this eyesore to persist for months, as happened two years ago, and are asking Enfield council to process the rebuild immediately.
In our view, destroying the gate once might be an accident, but twice in short measure looks like a pattern, one that requires executive attention; we hold it as axiomatic that Enfield Parks department exercise its right to take action to protect valuable public assets by banning all heavy articulated lorries from this entrance, and the park. After all what oversized trucks do to solid gateways leaves us all in fear of what could happen to a child.
The demolition of the new south entry bollard at Cockfosters gate is further evidence that large lorries should be banned from this entrance.
Limes Ave: The surface of Limes Ave is now showing advanced signs of deterioration, lorries over- running the kerb, and structural cracking under the weight of oversize trucks. A restoration programme is urgently required, paid for from monies earned from major events.
Conclusion: All this repair work costs a lot of money, some of it recoverable from third parties, but we calculate that Enfield council makes precious little net income from these major events, when all costs and disruption to the neighbourhood are taken into account. At the moment councillors in the administration are not being given the full facts, and we press our case so that they can at last make an informed decision on the true value of major events in Trent Country Park.
Please help us by writing with your objections to your local councillor or direct to the Leader of Enfield Council whose address is:
Cllr.Nesil.Caliskan@enfield.gov.uk
and copy in the Director of the Environment at Enfield:
Thanking you for your support,
Sincerely,
Peter Gibbs
Chairman
Friends of Trent Country Park