By Patricia Sheerin, Wimbledon Park

I was interested to read that Merton Council is currently running an ongoing £12m budget surplus each year.

From the way in which they have been commercialising Wimbledon Park in recent years I imagined that they were desperate for cash.

I have lived next to the park for 25 years and, until about five years ago, it was a wonderful place in which to walk and relax.

But it has now become an over-commercialised piece of open space, seemingly with every square metre available for hire, regardless of the needs and wishes of ordinary park users.

The park’s decline started five years ago when Merton Council and the so-called Heritage Group caved into pressure from Sustrans and relaxed the no-cycling policy, resulting in the park’s pedestrian pathways being turned into cycle routes for lycra louts taking a short cut on their journeys to and from work.

Pedestrians can no longer walk on the paths without constantly looking over their shoulders in case they need to take evasive action.

Many regular park users have recounted stories of dogs, children and adults being injured by speeding cyclists. Since this change of policy, the paths have become used by cars, vans and any other form of vehicle.

Merton’s response to complaints is to advise park users to shout at cars and cyclists to slow down, but this usually results in abuse and threats, with no park staff available for support.

There is hardly a day when there is not an event taking place and, because the organisers have paid a fee to Merton Council, they resent anyone walking across their bit of park, therefore dogs and small children have to be restricted for fear or interrupting a game, match, or fitness training session.

In addition, because so many playing fields have been sold off, local schools use the park for football, rugby, cricket, and many other forms of sport, from 9 a.m. throughout the day.

The grounds staff do their best but their numbers have been greatly reduced in recent years, seemingly in proportion to Merton’s swelling coffers.

And, with the demise of the post of park keeper, there is no supervision, often leaving the park unsafe.

Unlike most neighbouring boroughs, Merton allows barbecues in its parks and therefore people flock from miles around to hold their barbecues.

And, whereas many people notice that Spring has arrived when they hear the first cuckoo, here in Wimbledon Park the warmer weather is heralded by the first barbecue-shaped burn marks on the grass, which by the end of the summer have created a chequerboard effect across the whole park.

With no park-keeper or permanent staff on site, the barbecues are often left to burn unattended and on several occasions have caused fires to tree stumps, threatening the near-by ancient woodland.

Over Christmas and New Year we had to suffer the Winter Wonderland, which turned out to be a tacky version on the popular Somerset House event and which was described by one parent as like a fun fair on a building site.

At the same time, an adjacent area of the park has been leased to TfL for use as a works compound for the duration of essential maintenance works to the District Line.

Now that this work has been completed this area of park, which was once grass, has been covered in hard-core and sectioned off for use as yet another car park.

Merton Council has been developing the park along commercial lines for the past few years to bring in money (which they appear to have in abundance) and people come from miles away in their cars and jeeps.

Therefore, on busy days, they have to compete for the 100 or so parking spaces in the two car parks.

Despite the park being served by excellent public transport (two tube stations and two bus routes) the Council has done nothing to discourage visitors coming by car.

In fact, the area of park recently leased to TfL has been used as a seasonal overflow car park for the past two or three years. Now that the contractors have left Merton, TfL plans to concrete over this area for use as an additional permanent car park, destroying a large area of the field and creating another eyesore.

During the summer season (which now apparently starts at Easter) the view of the lake from the Revelstoke Road entrance is replaced by rows of cars and vans and this will now be made a permanent feature.

Park users walking through the entrance, often with dogs or small children, are faced with cars, vans, speeding cyclists, the resulting dust and fumes and with an endless vista of parked cars.

If Merton Council does indeed have a large surplus, they should use some of it, as Councillor Dean said, to employ park-keepers to ensure that public parks are safe and relaxing places to visit and not areas of real estate to be commercialised and used as cash cows.

Make sure your voice is heard by sending your letter to: letters@wimbledonguardian.co.uk

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