New designs to tackle crime at Elthorne Peace Garden

11.53.21am BST (GMT +0100) Thu 7th May 2009

Councillors Ruth Polling and Greg Foxsmith unveiled the new windows which make the Peace Garden safer.

New improvements to Elthorne Park Peace Garden are making it safer and more pleasant for local people to use. These improvements, unveiled by Liberal Democrat councillors this week as part of Islington Council's £6,600,000 investment in improving the borough's parks, are helping residents claim their local park back from drinkers and drug dealers.

The Peace Garden was built in the 1980s as a tranquil walled enclosure, but the brick walls and dense shrubbery gave criminal and antisocial elements somewhere to gather unseen. Despite being a lovely space, it was avoided by local people.

Local Liberal Democrat councillors campaigned along with nearby residents and the Friends of Elthorne Park group to secure improvements to make the Peace Garden safe. Islington Council consulted local people and has now built new windows in the walls and opened up sight lines with new planting - so that while the garden is still peaceful it is no longer intimidating, and has nowhere for yobs to hide any more.

Local Hillrise ward councillor Greg Foxsmith said:

"When I got elected in 2006 I made it one of my top priorities to improve Elthorne Park and help local people reclaim the Peace Garden from antisocial behaviour and criminal activities. The new windows are the sort of design change that has a big impact - it changes the whole feel of the garden and makes it much more open and safe.

"Thanks to the council's investment in improving the borough's parks, Elthorne Park's Peace Garden is once again a lovely garden for local people to enjoy. It shows that things in my neighbourhood are continuing to get better under the Liberal Democrat council, which has listened to local people and acted to tackle the cause of this local problem."