Minutes FFFOS general meeting

Friends of Fairfax/Falkland Open Space (FFFOS)

Minutes meeting Sunday 11th February at 11am

Present:
Matt Burge, Chair FFFOS
M. O’Dean, resident Falkland Road
Eileen O’Dwyer, Falkland Road Neighbourhood Watch
Mark Thorpe, resident Falkland Road
Deborah Peacock, resident Allison Road
Adam Coffman, Fairfax Road residents’ organisation
Susanna Taylor, secretary FFFOS

1. Update on works

Report from the working group meeting with the Council

Adam had been to the meeting where the Council had been well represented with six councillors present.

The Council had confirmed that Log cabins will be demolished end of March 2007. The concrete will be taken up and the surface grassed over. A power point and a water point will be put in the ground. New lighting has already been installed along the path at the eastern side of the park.

The Council was planning to take away the internal fencing at the eastern side of the park during the demolition work. The fence will be stored and put up again at a later stage.

The Council did not seem to have any plans or budget for further works in the park due to a lack of information about what the community wants.

All in all it had been a very disappointing meeting with no new information from the Council. It had also been rather bizarre that the Council claimed to have no information on what the community wanted despite having had a community consultation day on the future of the open space in October 2006 and a number of meetings with various interest groups.

Action: The meeting decided to send a letter to Councillor for the Environment, Brian Haley opposing the plans to take away the internal fencing as this would make the park less safe for children and increase the risk of dog messing and littering.

Action: Chase up minutes/ information on the outcome of the October consultation day and follow up on the need for further meetings/consultation to ensure that the Council has all the information needed to draw up proper plans and a budget.

2.Open space information

The meeting agreed that it would be useful to have a notice board where e.g. meetings could be announced. We should ask for money from the Council.

Adam is setting up a website for the Ladder area which could be used for information about the Open Space.

Nuisance to residents

Mr. M. O’Dean, whose property borders the Open Space, told how the activities in the park cause residents a lot of nuisance including broken windows, ruined fences (due to children climbing over to collect balls), subsidence from the trees, graffiti and noise.

Mr O’Dean wished for the park to be better supervised. He suggested that CCTV was installed and that a sign saying no ball games after 7.30 pm was put up.

The meeting also discussed the hedge between the ball court and Falkland Road. If the hedge came down it would improve the security but some Falkland Road residents rely on the hedge to reduce the noise from the ball court.

There will be an Area Assembly Meeting on 5 March 2007 where these issues could be brought up.

3. Funding

It is possible to apply for funding through the Council’s ‘Making the Difference’ grants scheme. Bids have to be in by 16th March 2007. All the different groups with an interest in the Open Space should put in bids.

Action: Matt to apply for funding of play equipment and park furniture on behalf of FFFOS. Adam to get more leaflets to hand out to potential bidders.

4.Spring event

The spring event will be on Saturday 24th March 2007 at 10.30 am provided that this will not clash with the demolition work. An alternative date was set to 21st April 2007. There will be an Easter Egg Hunt, tea and cakes, seed planting and face painting.

Actions:
- Adam to check when demolition will take place and if there will be a power point installed.
- Event posters (Matt and Deborah)
- send e-mails and post event info on web space (Matt and Adam)
- Press release (Adam)
- Eggs (Eileen)
- Seeds, pots and compost (Susanna)
- Ask for cake donations via e-mail

4. Any other business

It was agreed that Sunday was not a good meeting day because it may make it difficult to for those who wish to attend church to come to the meeting.

The next meeting will be held on Saturday 10 March at 9.30am at the Falkland Centre, North Harringay Primary School.

Reply from Councillor Brian Haley

The following letter has been received from Councillor Brian Haley in reply to our concerns over the removal of the internal fencing within the open space. It’s a bit wordy so I’ve highlighted the main points!;

Thank you for your letter dated 14 February 2007.

The issue of removing the railings surrounding the Log Cabins was raised and discussed at the last meeting of the Working Group held on 29 January 2007. The Working Group agreed to remove the railings with the proviso that if there was evidence to suggest that the railings, after the Log Cabins had been removed, were required they would be replaced and that in the meantime the railings would be safely stored away.

This decision was taken on the basis that the Working Party will be working towards developing a phased programme of works to up grade the open space and with the removal of the railings this would have provided more options in the future design and use of this space.

I have now discussed the issues you have raised with Cllr Adamou the Chair of the Working Group, and appropriate officers of the Council. It has been confirmed that the demolition of the Log Cabins can proceed without the removal of the railings albeit that some may have to be temporarily removed for access to the site and then replaced. In view of this, both I and Councillor Adamou have agreed not remove the railings as part of the demolition of the Log Cabins.

I have to point out that, if it is proposed to move or remove the railings at a future date, the cost of this will have to be found from any future resources made available.

As you know the public consultation held in October last year was organised following meetings of the Working Group which first met on 10 August 2006. The public meeting held in October was to give the wider community an opportunity to feed back to the Council their views about the future use of the open space.

The Working Group is the appropriate body to discuss the details of any proposals for the open space and the principle of the demolition of the Log Cabins was agreed by the Working Group and sanctioned at a meeting of the Area Assembly in November 2006.

Further public consultations will of course take place as the programme for improvements are developed however, it is impracticable to consult the wider community on matters of detail and it is clear that the Working Group is the appointed body to discuss such matters and therefore, I cannot accept that the appropriate consultation had not taken place in respect of the demolition of the Log Cabins including the details regarding the fencing.

I again confirm that there are no proposals to sell this open space for the purposes of Housing Development and I am surprised that residents still refer to unfounded statements being made rather than the assurances I have already given at the Working Group and the Area Assembly.

I hope that this addresses the issues you have raised and my understanding is that the demolition will take place before the end of this financial year.

Regards

Councillor Brian Haley

Executive Member for Environment and Conservation

Internal fencing.

The following letter has been sent to councillor for the environment, Brian Haley (by email & hard copy – which has been signed). This action was agreed at the recent FFFOS meeting (minutes to be posted).

Dear Brian Haley,

We wish to urgently communicate that we do not want the council to take away the internal fence of the Falkland/Fairfax open space, at the east edge of the space, going from the ball court to Fairfax Rd.

There are three main reasons for this:

• There would be a significant health and safety issue with young children wandering directly from the open space area onto the street. A good example of this would be down by the play roundabout, which is only a few metres from the road.

• It would increase the already antisocial problem of dog owners letting their dogs foul the area. Currently the play area is separated from another area of the open space to which most dog owners use.

There has been a lack of consultation on this decision, which we think is unacceptable. As a specific issue this was not spoken about in the consultation day at the end of 2006.

We would like an urgent response to the above points.

Whilst writing, we also want to draw your attention to the fact that one of the workmen who was installing new lights to the open space this week, took upon himself to tell a resident that the open space is earmarked for housing development. We assume this is misinformation as you have yourself publicly denied this possibility, but we ask that you put this in writing to ourselves that housing development is not allowed upon this open space land.

Regards

Matt Burge

Chair of the Friends of Falkland/Fairfax Open Space (FFFOS) &
Member of the Falkland/Fairfax Open Space Working Group

Adam Coffman

Member of Fairfax Residents Association &
Member of the Falkland/Fairfax Open Space Working Group &
Committee member of FFFOS

Eileen Odwyer

Chair of Falkland Rd Neighbourhood Watch &
Member of the Falkland/Fairfax Open Space Working Group

cc Also emailed to;

Carolyn Baker, Dasos Maliotis, Gina Adamou, Karen Alexander, Paul Formosa.

Installation of lighting to through path at Open Space.

FFFOS’s principal fund raiser for the Open Space, Adam Coffman, who sits on the FFFOS committee was recently successful with a Make the Difference bid for extra lighting for the Open Space. The photo above shows one of four new lights that have been positioned along the through path. Well done Adam for a successful bid!

Minutes: FFFOS Committee meeting.

Friends of Falkland & Fairfax Open Space (FFFOS) committee meeting with Community Development Officer, 05/12/2006.

Present:
Paul Formosa, Haringey Council
Adam Coffman
Matt Burge
Susanna Taylor

Apologies: Deborah Peacock, Leesa Herbert

Next open space event

The next event should be before the Easter break-up, possibly on Saturday 24 March 2007. Activities could include bulb planting, Easter egg hunt, face painting, tea/coffee and food. We should also get people’s views on future play equipment etc.

An event’s insurance will probably be necessary (£80). Funding for the event could be obtained from e.g. the Police Property Fund and UK villages.

Paul offered to make the event posters.

The Friends of Falkland & Fairfax Open Space (FFFOS) will continue collecting e-mail addresses to add to the send list (e.g. at their meeting in February 2007 and at the March event).

News on log cabin and works

Demolition of the log cabin building will start in February 2007. Lighting will be improved and the ball court will be resurfaced after the drainage has been sorted out. New goals will be put in before spring.

Agreed that the open space is cleaned regularly.

We need to find out what play equipment the children want. We can get views at the March event. There is no funding for equipment in this year’s council budget. Recreation Services (Lou Taylor) is trying to secure funding.

Paul will check if it possible to get a power point and a marquee.

Sources of funding

Paul agreed to help where possible with this, particularly passing on sources to FFFOS as he comes across them.

Next FFFOS group meeting; Sunday 11th February, 11am, Falkland Centre (entrance from Frobisher Rd ).