Park users were served a curveball when Southwark Council dismantled ping pong tables and destroyed flowers to “tackle anti-social behaviour” last summer.
Police had advised the council to remove the popular amenities from parks in Camberwell and Walworth because they purportedly attracted criminals.
But the council’s controversial move went viral and was blasted as “organised destruction of community space” by “extremely angry” local people.
To justify the obliteration of flowers in Nursery Row Park, Council Leader Kieron Williams claimed concealed weapons were being found in their bushes “on a daily basis almost” – a statement later revealed as inaccurate.
Southwark Council now says the changes are “temporary” and that it will talk to residents about returning some facilities to the parks.
The Camberwell Green controversy came to light when a user on X (formerly Twitter) asked Southwark Council why it had removed table tennis tables and a bench from the park.
In a post since viewed over 80,000 times, Southwark Council said it had “reluctantly removed the tables on the recommendation of the police” to “tackle the rise in anti-social behaviour in the park”.
Met Police figures did show that anti-social behaviour is the most prevalent source of criminality in Camberwell Green, with 44 incidents reported in July.
Southwark Council claimed community members “overwhelmingly supported the decision” but many who spoke to the News said otherwise.
Camberwell resident John Carr said: “They weren’t causing any problems. There was drinking going on but I didn’t really see any grief there.”
Diana Ceccolini, 23, said: “I thought they were meant to be there for people to enjoy leisure activities… I think it’s really wrong to take it all away.”
However, local resident Lorenzo Lerca said the removal was good because the ping pong tables were “used as a drinking table”.
Suffering from a motor neurone disease, he said: “It became tricky for me because a lot of dodgy people were around. For me, as a disabled person, it became impossible to visit because they just bother you all the time.”
Days later, it emerged that Southwark Council had also destroyed a flower walkway in Nursery Row Park, Walworth.
Southwark Council destroys Walworth flower walkway in ongoing anti-social behaviour crackdown
Park volunteers, who’d spent ten years growing the greenery with £10,000 council funding, said the park was now “a wasteland”.
Police had advised the council to remove the plants because they were blocking CCTV sight lines.
Luke Miller, Chair of Friends of Nursery Row Park, said: “I’m really, really sad. We spent a long time making the park somewhere nice…it makes me very angry indeed.”
At November’s Council Assembly, Cllr Williams said weapons were being found in the park “on a daily basis almost”.
But police told the News just one hidden knife had been found in the park since April 2022.
Cllr Kieron Williams said: “It was never my intention to alarm residents but to stress the urgent need for measures to keep park visitors safe at the time, including clear view for our CCTV.”