Jimmy Burns - Editor Mike Bates - Production - Battersea Park
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