FAQs

We stopped locking half of our park gates back in 2015, and now are proposing to stop locking the remaining parks. There are two main reasons for this: 

• To create a fairer and more flexible service. At the moment, Park Guard have to attend some parks to lock the gates each night, and open them again in the morning, regardless of whether there are any issues in the park or not. Some parks aren’t locked at all. The proposed changes to this service will mean that we are able to fund more security resources and patrol parks to prevent ASB or to respond to issues within any park, including those that are not currently locked.
• To save money. Across London, councils are facing funding cuts where difficult decisions have to be made, and Islington is no exception, with growing financial pressures, caused by the ongoing cost-of-living crisis, inflation, and the long-term impact of more than a decade of austerity.   

While effective financial management has left the council’s budget in a stable place and has limited the need for deep cuts, the council has still had to take tough decisions in this budget to ensure that it can continue to deliver on its missions and prioritise the services that matter most to local people. This includes making savings of £14.2m to set a balanced budget in 2025/26. 

The proposed changes to gate locking will result in a saving of £100,000 towards this. 

See the list of parks that we are proposing to stop locking, in alphabetical order: 

• Arlington Square
• Battishill Street Gardens 
• Biddestone Park 
• Caledonian Park 
• Colebrooke Regent Canal 
• Colebrooke Row Gardens 
• Compton Street 
• Compton Terrace Gardens 
• Dalmeny Park 
• Dartmouth Park 
• Duncan Terrace Gardens 
• Elthorne Park 
• Foxham Gardens
• Gillespie Park 
• Graham Street 
• Granville Square 
• Halford Gardens 
• Highbury Fields Playground
• Isledon Garden 
• Islington Memorial Green 
• Joseph Grimaldi Park  
• Kings Square 
• Kinloch Gardens 
• Landseer Garden 
• Lonsdale Square 
• Milner Square 
• Myddelton Square Gardens 
• New River Walk Newington Green 
• Northampton Square 
• Paradise Park  
• Penn Road 
• Percy Circus 
• Quaker Gardens 
• Royal Northen Gardens 
• Seward Street 
• Spa Fields 
• Spa Green Gardens 
• St John Garden  
• St Paul's Shrubbery 
• Thornhill Bridge Garden 
• Thornhill Crescent 
• Tufnell Playing Fields 
• Union Square 
• Woodfall Gardens 

The following parks that are locked by the community or park keepers will be unaffected by the proposed change:

• Canonbury Square Gardens
• Fortune Street
• Highbury Fields (Sports Areas)  
• Rosemary Gardens
• Whittington Park 
• Wilton Square

Parks that are not included on either of these lists are either not currently locked at night or are not able to be locked.  

We are sure there will be concern that the stopping of the locking service will lead to an increase of ASB issues. If the saving does go forward, we will be closely monitoring ASB reports to ensure we respond quickly to any notable increases. The monitoring will also look to identify whether the additional patrols has a positive impact on ASB levels across all sites.

The majority of ASB that is reported in parks is during the day, before the point at which any parks are locked. It takes the team around 3.5 hours to lock all of the parks. During the summer months, park locking begins at around 9.00pm to enable people to enjoy the warmer and brighter evenings. This means that by the time the team have finished locking the parks, it is after midnight. Most ASB that is reported is normally before this time (same for parks are locked and those that can’t), so it is unlikely to make any difference in the rates of ASB. If ASB is reported, our team will be able to respond in a faster and more efficient manner under these proposed changes.  

As your park is not locked or can’t be locked, the proposed change will mean that that our Park Guard team will be better placed to attend and deal with any problems. They will also be able to take additional measures including temporarily locking the park, placing a CCTV tower on site, and increasing the security presence in the park. 

If you witness criminal activity, including abuse, intimidation or harassment, drug use and drug dealing, or vandalism, you must contact the police. Anti-Social Behaviour, including graffiti or fly tipping, can be reported via this page.

Should a group of residents or businesses, wish to start locking and opening their local park, the council will provide training and advice to set this up. This will include providing risk assessments, arranging safety training for volunteers and providing any basic equipment needed such as spare locks and hi-vis etc.  

The council has proposed £14.2 millions of savings across the council services this year. The Parks Service reviewed several potential options for savings, but it was felt that those would have created more of an impact on the parks and their use.

If we go ahead with the proposed changes to the service, we will not be able to start locking individual parks again. We will have capacity to carry out temporary locking of individual parks for short periods of time if is felt that that is the only way to disrupt an ASB issue that is occurring.  

We will be monitoring ASB reporting levels against a baseline of data taken from the previous 12 months. If the proposal is implemented, we will carry out a six month and 12-month review of reporting levels to determine if there has been any positive or negative impacts because of this proposal.