Greenwich now state Maryon Wilson Animal Park will stay open
Shortly before a council meeting tonight Greenwich Council have announced they will now look to keep Charlton’s Maryon Wilson Animal Park open.
The reverse ferret isn’t a great surprise and minimal savings it would have brought had the strong whiff of being a distraction to cover other cuts elsewhere, as I wrote when covering news last week.
Now Greenwich Council leaders can pretend to be the knights in shining armour having listened to residents. Quick, look at this move of saving a much-loved animal park. Don’t look over there as libraries and leisure centres are cut while market traders see steep cost rises for their pitches.
See also street cleaning cuts and reduced council tax exemption.
It all nods towards classic political maneuvering. As I wrote last week: “One suspects this cut may be announced now so the animal park can be saved later on – and distract from a raft of other cuts. It’s also good PR for the authority to do so after threats of closure.”
That isn’t to say the sheer strength of feeling may not have surprised some at the council (the petition is now above 11k) and people fighting the plans havn’t done a great job. They have.
But we shouldn’t now let a PR drive on “saving the day” distract from other cuts they’ll hope will be shielded.
Yep this seemed a calculated move but carried out in a clumsy way. Doing it just a week before a big council meeting made things awkward for them. Not much cover provided for cuts in other areas but I guess now it’s all in on a publicity frenzy about saving the day which they’ll cover in their newspaper and on their website whilst studiously trying to avoid mention of cuts elsewhere.
Yay! Great work to all those people who signed and spread the word as well as local websites that publicised 🙂
The problem for the Council is that ongoing amenities such as parks and libraries just don’t provide enough opportunities to raise individual profiles (or as Murky rightly points out – distractions). Councillors much prefer sponsored events and projects like Woolwich Waste or the tawdry ‘rebrand’ for Wicked over the dull business of keeping markets open or bins emptied.
While the ambition is to be applauded, it’s a shame that Greenwich doesn’t lean into what it has in abundance: history and nature. Arts and culture are well represented across London – open parks less so. Victoria Park these days is little better than a racetrack, while Finsbury Park is always at the mercy of events such as Tough Mutha. Greenwich meanwhile remains remarkably unspoilt, as does the heath. Let other boroughs do what they do best and let Greenwich keep it’s own treasures intact.
Now will those same Labour cllrs ask their Labour MPs in Westminster why government are continuing austerity?
They’ve inherited a rum job but their solution seems to be more of the same, but this time it’ll be different. Honest. Utter pish