Have you been for a walk through Scratchwoods open space recently? I went there and decided to play a little game called "Count the Condom". It seems to me that this particular open space has become a "sex theme park". There is even a Facebook page called the Scratchwood Open Space Dogging Appreciation Society.
The catchphrase for this site is "Anything Goes".
Sadly this isn't true. Iranians (and Kurds and Afghanis) celebrating Sizdah Bedar, the 13th day of their new year like to go to Scratchwoods with their families and have a picnic. The Council has shut the park and banned this. The reasons? It causes too much litter.
How hard is it to ask these communities to organise a committee to manage the picnics and clean up the litter? A couple of PCSO's on overtime paid for by the Iranian community could easily manage a family festival. Maybe they could go and clean some of the condoms away before as a gesture of goodwill. A few years ago I was stuck on the A1 for nearly an hour due to traffic caused by a huge police operation to shut down this festival.
I'm no prude but I wonder where society is going when we have a culture where Dogging = good and Family Picnics = Bad. This week I've been looking at issues of community and how we need to develop it. I can think of nothing better than family picnics. If there is a large enough community to enforce a ban, then there is a large enough community to engage positively and have a joyous celebration for all of the community. Until 1829 it was illegal to be a Roman Catholic in Great Britain. Now St Patricks day has become a major part of the London calendar. Lets work together as a community to make people who want to stage such celebrations have a pleasant and safe environment. What would be better. A ban for the weekend or a happy festival where all of the litter, condoms, plastic bags and mess were cleaned up afterwards by responsible citizens in the community staging the event.
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