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Partnership with business
• I’D like to clear up some misunderstandings in your article (Parks and estates get ‘McAdverts’, August 28).
Camden’s parks, estates and public spaces are there for the people of Camden, first and foremost. I don’t think there is a councillor of any party who thinks differently.
Friends groups and residents across the borough work hard to preserve and enhance their areas – so it’s clear to me that when we talk about Camden working with business on sponsorship or advertising we’re not talking about “McDonald’s Tavistock Square” or “Waterlow Park – brought to you by KFC”.
That is not the real world.
The fact is that Camden just got the worst funding deal from government for a decade – and like families across the borough – we’re feeling the pinch of the credit crunch.
For example, over the next two years the cost of inflation alone will be well over £15 million. So we need to make efficiencies and make every pound pull its weight so that we can continue to invest in the services people value, like schools, libraries and youth services.
Sponsorship and advertising is not a new idea for Camden. Most people will already be familiar with billboards on bus shelters – part of a significant deal with JC Decaux that’s been running for years.
New ideas about raising further revenue from business are in their very early stages. They’re just one of many things the council is looking at as part of our ongoing efficiency programme.
Nothing has been approved or signed off but it is right that we should explore these options.
Leicester Square plays host to film premieres. Regent’s Park sees events as diverse as The Innocent Village Fete and the Camden Green Fair & Bikefest.
They bring in the sponsors but they also contribute to the cultural life of London.
These are the sorts of business partnerships we’re thinking about – ones that could bring new and exciting events into Camden for the benefit of our residents.
Of course, any new advertising or sponsorship would need to be carefully chosen and appropriate to the surroundings. We’d need to consult carefully with local people, councillors, conservation committees and those who would be affected. But we should not be afraid of doing business with business.
Similarly, there is no question of advertising hoardings springing up all around council estates in the line of sight of tenants and leaseholders.
But if we found a site fronting on to a main road that could generate significant income for Camden’s housing department (which is under pressure following government subsidy cuts) then I think residents would expect us to look at this seriously.
The council is already on target to achieve its efficiency savings this year but if we can find additional ways of increasing funds and reduce the burden on council taxpayers, then surely it would be wrong of us not to investigate.
CLLR RALPH SCOTT
Executive Member of Resources
Improving spaces
• IF Camden Council is to allow sponsorship of public places (Parks and estates get ‘McAdverts’, August 28) it should be done very discreetly and the money exclusively used for improvement of the public place concerned.
This is already being done throughout the country to roundabouts, some of which are minor horticultural masterpieces, with a small, discreet, sponsorship board.
GERALD HOLM
Fitzjohn’s Avenue, NW3
Lessons from China
• LIKE many other residents of Camden, I am appalled to learn of the current proposals to allow corporate sponsorship of our parks with all the tasteless advertising that this would necessarily involve.
Nevertheless, as citizens we should never lose sight of the simple fact that the upkeep and maintenance of our green spaces is a commodity. Like any other commodity it is not a “free gift”; it has a cost of production which must be paid for by some means or other. This is simple economics.
As a community, and as a country, we have since the end of the Second World War, become far too reliant on our “something for nothing” mentality.
By contrast, the Chinese, for all the terrible mistakes they made in hauling their country into the modern world, never created the monstrosity called the “welfare state”.
In that country, individual citizens accept individual personal responsibility for the provision for their own healthcare, the education of their children and for their financial security in old age.
As their society progresses, their standards in these areas are already beginning to surpass ours.
Moreover, the citizens of Beijing, pay directly for the use of their parks – and I can personally testify that those parks are very attractive and very well maintained. This should be no surprise to anyone since people over the world naturally respect the services which they have to pay for. The admission charges, by the way, vary from 20p to 50p depending upon the size of the park and the facilities it offers.
Camden Council, and your readers, can learn a great deal from Beijing!
MAGNUS NIELSEN
Barnet and Camden UK Independence Party, NW3
Question of judgment
• YOUR front page last week highlights brilliantly why we should question the judgment of the Liberal Democrats running the Town Hall (Parks and estates get ‘McAdverts’, August 28).
On the one hand you have a picture showing senior Lib Dem Councillor Janet Grauberg “bravely” campaigning against a new Tesco in Swiss Cottage (not in her ward, but why be picky about these things?).
Next to it you have an exclusive report that the council – run by Cllr Grauberg, her Lib Dem colleagues and Tory councillors – wants to “Tesco-fy” our parks and open spaces by allowing firms to advertise all over them, the plan being to raise a hefty £500,000 in the process.
Isn’t it just a bit hypocritical to campaign publicly against high street chains like Tesco on the one hand, but promote a policy aimed at seeing our parks plastered with adverts for high-street food chains, or even supermarkets, on the other? Cllr Grauberg and her fellow Lib Dems need to make up their mind and try a little consistency for once.What do they want? More commercialisation of our public space or less?
I, for one, don’t want my local park in Kilburn Grange ruined by adverts and hoardings. Sadly, it seems Camden’s Lib Dems are happy to see our parks and public spaces spoilt by crass commercialisation.
MIKE KATZ
Chair, Hampstead & Kilburn Labour Party, NW6
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