Battersea Park closed due to Formula E Post Reply

[rooting4tooting]

Battersea Park has always had a commercial arm and have corporate buildings for beanos, conventions etc and before that had the famous permanent funfair.
I think WBC should have given free perhaps 2000 tickets divied out by lottery. That is the shame.
As for the 4 days disruption, it does seem a bit strong to close the park 95% all day every day.
Having attended the festival of speed at Crystal Palace and the little disruption this caused to the park as a whole, the problem is the width and route of the track. This is a race, not a time trial, so width of the raceway is crucial for the safety of the participants.
I think this will be a historic event, but I for one would like a clear view of the profit loss for WBC on this one!

[millymoo]

I was going to be a supporter of this event as it is literally on my door step but as there are huge sections of the park that are already inaccessible (fencing, one way systems, lorries and cranes etc) while they set up more than two weeks beforehand I have changed my mind. The organisers don't seem to be paying enough to the council/park for the disruption and they must be making a huge amount of money as the only tickets left for either day are priced at over £50 pp! They should have kept more of the park open to all and set up free screens for those of us who do not want to spend a fortune trying to go. Ok rant over!

[carolhugs]

I was at the park yesterday building works for this event are taking place now.
You are only able to enter Albert bridge Rd or Chelsea Bridge Entrance because of the building works on the road around. This is the only road in the park which you are able to cycle on, which I like to do most evenings. Most people who live near the park cannot afford to take their family to his event.

[atbattersea]

I had the misfortune to visit the park this afternoon. Completely unbelievable, it is much, much worse than I could ever have imagined.

There are 10ft high crash barriers around the entire east and south sides of Carriage Drive (may be around the north and west sides too), which effectively prevent access to the park. There are articulated lorries, vans, cranes, etc all over the place. Workmen putting up more barriers with essentially no separation between their workspace and the public trying to get around the park.

The crash barriers seem to block entry to the main body of the park, except for a few crossing points. There are no signs as to where these crossing points might be and no information for park users as to what parts of the park are accessible.

A few stewards are directing all users of the park to the footpaths on Carriage Drive, the roadway itself is closed to everyone (well it is surrounded by crash barriers). So you have pedestrians, runners and cyclists all trying to use a footpath that is constricted by the crash barriers and a separate ring of crowd control barriers.

This is all about two weeks prior to the race, so you can imagine that the actual disruption in the park is going to be continuing for at least three weeks. I though four days was more than enough, but this is an absolute joke.

rooting4tooting I take your point about the track at Crystal Palace, but the reality is that they did, historically have races there. Although it may not seem so, the course they are using in Battersea Park is no wider. I also understand your point that there have been commercial activities in the park before. But this is on a totally different scale, this is more or less the whole park. Even when the funfair was there back in the 1970s is was a relatively small section and did not prevent access to the bulk of the park.

The exhibition hall at the "British Genius" site is actually a temporary building, which they take down on a regular basis (I presume because there is no planning permission to have it there permanently).

[Livinginsw11]

For goodness sake stop moaning.

The park will be closed for a few days. So what.
Yes the council may make some money from the event but so will local businesses. The hotel on Queenstown road is full for the week as I am sure other hotels will be. All employing local residents. It also benefits you by keeping your council tax down.
I haven't checked but I will bet that local restaurants will have bookings as well and shock horror some shops may make some extra sales.

Local schools were given some tickets and residents living in certain roads bordering the park were offered free tickets, yes to make up for the inconvenience. (Ref Brightside magazine).
The council try and build the status of London and the borough by holding these events but there is always someone moaning because it happens in their backyard. Would you be happier pushing it out to Ealing or tower hamlets.

We have more park / common land in and bordering the borough than any other borough in London.
For a few weekends of the year, go and try them out.
Just stop moaning because you can't walk on a particular blade of grass.

[atbattersea]

More Wandsworth Council cheerleaders!

Yes, I would rather the council tax went up than this total chaos in the park.

If people are spending money around the park for the weekend they are just not spending it somewhere else - and specifically they could be giving some of that money to the owner of a dedicated track (as you are so interested in private enterprise).

What you don't seem to consider is that by having a jolly for one group of people just excludes another group. ie you have no social conscience.