The council is currently consulting on proposals to make the beloved nature reserve more accessible to wheelchair users, reports Simon Allin, Local Democracy Reporter Haringey Council wants to make Parkland Walk more accessible Planned improvements to a Haringey nature reserve have sparked fears they could cause ecological damage and endanger vulnerable groups by allowing “super-fast cycling”.
Haringey Council has launched a consultation on plans designed to boost the accessibility of Parkland Walk, London’s longest nature reserve, which follows the course of a former railway track between Finsbury Park and Alexandra Palace.
The council says it hopes to make the walk “more accessible and inclusive for those with limited mobility, disabilities and physical restrictions”.
But local groups fear the plans, which may include resurfacing the pathway, could damage the environment and encourage “super-fast cycling”, potentially putting children, the elderly and those with disabilities at risk of harm.
Cathy Meeus, vice-chair of the Friends of Parkland Walk group, said that in at least one of the places where the council was proposing wheelchair access it would “destroy an unnecessarily large part of the nature reserve by concreting it over”.
She explained that many entrances to the walk lead down from old railway bridges, and these would likely require ramps, while others leading directly from roads “could be made much more wheelchair-friendly with minimum impact on the nature reserve.”
Insisting the group was “not against disabled access”, Cathy described the current surface as a “fantastic compromise between a reasonably hard and resilient surface, but also retaining the rural […]
Continue reading the original article at: haringeycommunitypress.co.uk