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Jimmy Burns - Editor Mike Bates - Production - Battersea Park

Jimmy Burns - Editor Mike Bates - Production - Battersea Park

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Unholy action<br />

LARGE chunks of grass have<br />

been mysteriously hacked out<br />

and replaced with pieces of<br />

wood in the sign of a swastika at the<br />

foot of the <strong>Park</strong>’s millennium Cross. A<br />

similar but older piece of sculpture, the<br />

newly restored war memorial in Putney<br />

Vale, has been covered in graffiti. At the<br />

Peace Pagoda, the resident monk has<br />

been periodically taunted by anonymous<br />

thugs. That the three acts of apparent<br />

vandalism occurred within days of each<br />

other may be coincidental but they suggest<br />

anti-social behaviour of a disturbing<br />

anti-spiritual kind.<br />

Hopefully the police-<strong>Park</strong>s and Met<br />

will combine their operations and identify<br />

the culprits as successfully as they<br />

managed to deal with the Gondola Café<br />

tormentor. In April an undercover sting<br />

operation by police led to the conviction<br />

of a 19-year-old man for breaking into<br />

the café three times.<br />

The man, Jack McQueen of Greyshott<br />

Road, <strong>Battersea</strong>, was sentenced to 12<br />

months probation plus a six-month curfew<br />

preventing him from leaving his<br />

home between 10pm and 6am. He was<br />

PARKWATCH<br />

also served with an anti-social behaviour<br />

order banning him from entering <strong>Battersea</strong><br />

<strong>Park</strong> for the next two years.<br />

Queenstown Safer Neighbourhood<br />

Team’s energetic police<br />

seargent David Cook told the<br />

Review that McQueen’s arrest<br />

was a cooperative effort between<br />

police inside and outside the<br />

<strong>Park</strong>.<br />

The next issue of the Review<br />

will highlight some of the hugely<br />

constructive work Cook and local<br />

community leaders are doing<br />

to stop local youth from getting<br />

into a never ending spiral of reoffending.<br />

A scheme running<br />

through the summer includes<br />

football in the <strong>Park</strong> –sponsored<br />

by Chelsea Football Cluband<br />

other youth activities and<br />

projects. For further information<br />

contact Henrietta Crooker Pool,<br />

organiser of the <strong>Battersea</strong> Summer<br />

School on 020 70785865<br />

7<br />

On the subject of La Gondola<br />

café, the Review extends a warm<br />

welcome to the new owners and<br />

we wish them all the best in their<br />

aim of improving the quality of the site<br />

and what it offers.<br />

Below: The Cross, vandalised

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