The park benches lined up behind a poly-tunnel

BENCHES removed to make way for music festivals in Finsbury Park last summer are yet to be reinstated – and have now been found covered with weeds in a locked-off area of the park.

The seats that line the main thoroughfare of Finsbury Park are temporarily moved every year before the lorries arrive to set up big profit-making events like Wireless Festival and Krankbrother gigs.

Usually, the benches are put back once the summer is over, but last year they never reappeared, and now 12 months have gone by with nowhere for visitors to sit down.

But the benches haven’t gone missing – they are lined up behind a poly-tunnel in the park’s plant nursery with weeds and wildflowers growing between their slats.

Friends of Finsbury Park co-chair Katie Dawson told the Tribune: “It just sums up our frustration with the management of the park, which seems to be so utterly incompetent.

“Not everyone is going there to jog or ride a bike, people want to sit down and read their book, eat their sandwich, breastfeed their baby, rest their legs. People need benches to sit on, but there are about 13 of them just getting reclaimed by nature in a shut off corner of the park.

Gina Harkell and Katie Dawson of the Friends of Finsbury Park group

“[The council] brag about how much money they’re getting from events, but all we see is the park being degraded over time.”

Other than the music events themselves, the loss of benches is the single biggest issue that the Friends of Finsbury Park are asked about by fellow residents, Ms Dawson said — and though she has contacted Haringey Council about the situation four times since last autumn, she has never heard anything back.

“In itself it may not seem like such a big thing, but arguably it’s not really a park if you can’t sit down. It was founded as a space for the people, and now it’s just being milked and degraded.

“It’s a space to be pimped out to live event promoters. Obviously the council needs to raise money, but there needs to be a balance struck between doing that and trashing a park and ignoring residents,” Ms Dawson added.

One of the park’s biggest events, Wireless, was cancelled this summer due to a Home Office decision to block headliner Ye – formerly Kanye West – from entering the country.

Haringey Council earns on average more than £1million per year from events in Finsbury Park, the entirety of which is supposed to be spent on the park itself.

A Haringey Council spokesperson said: “We understand the absence of the benches has caused frustration for some park users. We have responded to the Friends of Finsbury Park on this issue.

“The twelve benches are currently being refurbished and improved and will be returned to their previous locations in the park when ready.

“Whilst this has taken longer than we had hoped there remains a further 71 benches, 11 Memorial Benches and 11 picnic style benches available so our users can relax and enjoy the benefits of the park.”