"Sunset" by Steve Harrison - winner of the Friends of Broomfield Park photographic competition
Visitors to Broomfield Park this spring and summer will find the park rather less colourful than usual. Funding cutbacks by Enfield Council have led to a two-thirds reduction in the number of bedding plants being planted out this year - across the Borough as a whole the budget allocation for flowers in parks has been reduced from £24,000 to £8,000. The result will be many bare patches in the flower beds that are such an important part of the Broomfield Park experience.
This unwelcome cutback was one of the subjects discussed at the open meeting of the Friends of Broomfield Park on 8th May. The Friends expressed disappointment not only at the reduced number of plants being purchased, but also at the fact that Enfield Council had failed to forewarn them and consult them about ways of mitigating the impact on the Park's appearance. They point out that if sufficient warning had been given it would have been possible to split perennials last autumn and use them to plug the gaps in flower beds. They find this particularly upsetting in view of the significant contribution which volunteers belonging to the Friends have been making to the appearance of the Park: upwards of 30 volunteers have been working on flower beds and have planted a new hedgerow, supplementing the limited capacity of the gardeners employed by the Council.
On a more posiitive note, the Friends announced the winners of the first Broomfield Park Photo Competition. First prize went to Steve Harrison, whose pictures entitled Sunset, The End of the Day and Why? were voted into first, second and fourth places respectively by visitors to the photo exhibition in Broomfield Conservatory. Second prize was awarded to Kevin O'Neill for his photograph Swans, Inbound, which was third most popular with the public.