Artist’s impression of the proposed new-look Milner Square park

• WHAT kind of a person is proud to declare that they will defend an action that endangers the health of innocent children?

Yet Councillor Claudia Webbe is using public money to support the attack on children’s health which has come about through the Labour-introduced barbecues in Highbury Fields.

Clissold Park dwarfs Highbury Fields in size, yet enlightened Hackney has made it clear that picnics are welcome but barbecues are not.

Barbecues fill Highbury Fields with dangerous toxic smoke. I have seen small children trying to bat this away from their faces because they instinctively know it’s dangerous.

During the Jewish summer fete, barbecue-users crowded in on the attendees and proceeded to cook non-kosher meat. A distressed elder silently and politely tried to signal to them his discomfort. But they ignored him.

I also saw black billowing smoke cover the lower half of Highbury Fields and engulf the children’s playground. Vulnerable, elderly and disabled people living around Highbury Fields have to suffer this stress all summer.

Elsewhere, there is a sign on the gate of our children’s playground in Milner Square which says it’s smoke-free and adds: “We want our children to live healthy lives.”

Cllr Webbe’s department, without asking residents their wishes or encouraging long-established local firms to apply, engaged architects involved in the 2012 Olympic Park (the Milner Square park is pocket-handkerchief size), to produce drawings that moved the toddlers’ play area away from their safe, metal-railing-enclosed, sunny, grassy area to the shade.

Not only was no safety railing provided, but toddlers were now close to the road exit, plagued by trucks racing through.

No longer in a safe, contained area with small swings, a roundabout and benches for mums and dads, they would be deprived of sunlight’s vitamin D, which helps their tiny bones grow strong and develops their visual acuity.

The present play area deters strangers as its grassy expanse allows parents and grandparents to see strangers approach or watch a child. Labour’s proposals force toddlers to mix with adults and teenagers, many of whom could be strangers to the square, which brings its own dangers.

If the safe, railed-off children’s play area is abolished, it will be harder for locals to challenge and thus protect children. Small children will also have to compete for swings with energetic teenagers.

Half of the park is a basketball/netball/tennis court, used for football or to try out new bikes away from traffic, and the remaining half is the children’s play area.

Many people thought that council money was being used to pay for the upheaval. They felt that, though they objected, they could not win against a publicly-funded juggernaut, so their voices trailed off.

Gibson Square park, with its flowerbeds and lawns, is 100 paces from Milner Square. Why turn Milner Square, against the wishes of residents, into a clone of Gibson Square. For the safety and health of Milner Square’s children, their safe, railed playground must not be moved.

RÓISÍN NÍ ĊORRÁIN
Milner Square, N1