Parks in Cally will continue to be securely locked at night

Islington Council has announced it will continue to securely lock parks and gardens at night. Following public consultation, Councillors have dropped a risky plan that would have left parks unlocked throughout the night.

Of the parks and open spaces in our neighbourhood, the following were on the list to be left unlocked: Caledonian Park, Grimaldi Park, Thornhill Bridge Garden and Thornhill Crescent.

The decision means that, each evening, there will continue to be a security sweep and locking of these parks.

The Council had consulted on a plan to stop locking parks every evening and leave them open all night. Over 1,700 people responded to the consultation, and the overwhelming majority said no.

Cllr Paul Convery comments: “The Council has had to find £14 million of savings this year to make our budget balance. But the parks proposal represented less than 1% of that £14 million package. It was a high risk, high impact proposal that saved very little money. Decisions in Islington are made by Councillors and we have decided the saving must be found elsewhere in the budget. This was always a risky proposal and we wanted to check what residents thought. We listened to what 1,700 people said.”

Islington has 122 parks and gardens of which 92 have gates which can be locked. In 2015 the Council decided to keep 50 of these parks locked at night. All of these will now continue to be locked.