During the week I took off, Havering Council announced that it
“has no intention of selling any of its principal parks and open spaces”
in order to reassure residents that the ‘rumours’ of an impending sell-off of public green spaces was imminent. Council leader Michael White, speaking a fortnight ago, acting as if the plan to sell certain “low value and low quality” parks was an entirely new discussion.
Now it comes to light that this plan has been in the works for several years. In 2004 the Council commissioned a study, the Atkins Report, to assess Havering’s Open Spaces. The report focuses on population densities in relation to parks, deprived areas, and in particular the number of children and the provision of children’s play parks, identifying deficiencies in much of Hacton ward, western parts of Harold Wood, south western parts of Gooshays ward and much of the residential areas of Brooklands and Havering Park wards, as well as western parts of Emerson Park ward, east Cranham and central Elm Park.
Council is now expected to decide what to sell within the next few months, said cabinet member for Parks, Cllr Paul Rochford:
“We really hope residents understand that our prized parks are not going to be sold. Havering has 13 Friends of Parks groups, some of which have hundreds of members, so we know how much local people value their parks. It’s inconceivable we would go selling off our prize assets willy-nilly.”
That remains to be seen.