Millfields Users' Group Committee met yesterday. I attended to support the Committee with its work to set up a website. It will issue formal minutes in due course, but below is a quick heads up on some of the issues covered. Please note; this isn't intended to be comprehensive of all the issues covered (the Masterplan for example will be revisited at a later point) and it has not been Committee endorsed as accurate.
Homelessness
· It was sad to learn people are sleeping rough in Millfields Park and along parts of the river Lea, particularly given the time of the year, with the heavy rain and temperatures dropping. We understand Hackney Council is working an organisation called Street Rescue to try to provide outreach work to the rough sleepers (as opposed to just moving them on to another location). We wish them well with that.
Bins
· The Millfields Users’ Group Committee have previously raised with the Council the need to for more bins in the park to discourage littering. It was advised by the Parks Department that: “Due to the current economic situation we are unable to provide additional bins, however we can review the current locations of the existing bins and ensure that they are in the most suitable locations.” Please do add comments below if you have suggestions on better locations for existing bins. I’ll feed these back to the MUG Committee to then feed back a co-ordinated response to Hackney.
Dog Faeces
· Park on site staff are required to pick up dog mess when they see it. The Millfields Users’ Group have previously stressed the need for dog mess bags – Hackney, unfortunately, do not have any reserves of these. It has advised: “we are working alongside the Dogs Trust and are running microchip and dog training events across Hackney, we will be setting up further dates for the new year and have requested that one of these is held in Millfields. We are also working with the Dogs trust on free tailored training events for our rangers in how to deal with dog related anti social behaviour.”
Signage
· It’s disappointing given the large amounts of monies secured for implementing master plans in other Hackney parks that relatively cheap ideas for improving Millifields Park get caught up in Hackney bureaucracy. The Council’s written response was it “is currently in the midst of developing a signage strategy for parks this will provide styles and designs for signage and notice boards within all our green spaces. The bespoke notice boards at Stoke Newington Common were developed before this process had begun.” I guess that means no time soon then.
Masterplan Issues
· MUG Committee is still awaiting an updated version of the Masterplan – as soon as a recieive a copy - it will be posted here.
