Councillors have promised to monitor closely a new pilot scheme which will see Myatt’s Fields Park open to the public 24/7.

Paul Gadsby and Annie Gallop say they have heard from residents and park users worried about a possible overnight upsurge in anti-social behaviour. Others have welcomed the move because, they say, it will make the park more convenient and accessible.

For many years, the gates have been locked between dusk and 7.30am. Now the local authority has decided to — possibly temporarily — leave them open all the time.

The pilot began earlier this month and is scheduled to continue until next Summer (July 2025). The council points out that Myatt’s Fields is one of the very few open spaces in the borough to have been regularly locked overnight and that no uptick in anti-social behaviour has been experienced when other areas have been left open: recent pilots elsewhere in the borough had been “successful”, Lambeth claimed.

The council insists that cost-saving is not the main reason for the decision. In a statement — the text of which may be read here – Cllr Fred Cowell, Lambeth’s Co-Cabinet Member for Equalities, Governance and Change said three other parks in the borough had been allowed to remain open all the time in the first phase of the trial.

He said: “no increases in crime or ASB were recorded during the first phase. Following relatively positive reports from stakeholders and the police during the first phase I took the decision to move onto the second phase which involved Myatt’s Field as one of the parks in the scope of this trial.”

Cllr Cowell said that £140,000 was being spent each year locking parks but this was unlikely to represent a good use of public cash because it didn’t necessarily deter crime or vandalism.

He went on: “Crime and anti-social behaviour in parks [is] not deterred by the locking measure in isolation. It also can be counterproductive for access for policing or emergency vehicles which can actively be counterproductive to prevent crime and disorder. Furthermore, there are large parts of the year where the locking policy closed access to parks for many park users, [whose] only option for going for a run or walking their dog during the winter months is when the park has closed.” 

An earlier study carried out alongside the Myatt’s Fields Park Project, which runs the open space on behalf of Lambeth, had agreed to leaving the facility permanently unlocked, he said.

“A few area-specific factors were looked [at] in relation to proceed[ing] with the unlocking of the park. These included the ongoing authorised evening use from the floodlit 3G pitch […]. This will act to some extent as a deterrent to anti-social behaviour specifically in the park.

“Current health and safety protocols require park workers to leave at least one set of gates unlocked if people refuse to leave the park at locking-up time, so there always has been access to the park through one entrance after dark. Before taking this decision, we had heard from park officers and the staff that help run Myatts Field that during the summer months it is common to leave the park unlocked.”

Cllr Cowell said the pilot is due for review in late July next year although he urged interested parties — including ward councillors and the park project — to report any concerns in the meantime.

Councillors Gallop and Gadsby said:

“We recognise that this change has worried a lot of people — not just in our ward, but also in the wider community of users. We will insist that the council closely monitor the pilot and, listening to residents and users, respond swiftly to any problems, bearing in mind that the park must be kept accessible for as many people as possible. We would encourage all residents to send any feedback on this issue, or raise any specific problems they see during the pilot’s operation, to parks@lambeth.gov.uk.”