Locking park will not solve the real problems

I WAS delighted to read (ES, June 10) June) that Laura Craik is in favour of keeping Primrose Hill park unlocked after 10pm, as others have and would still, but for the new policy of locking it at weekends. Gating the park will not prevent the allegations Laura recounts (phone thefts, drug dealing on the streets, ugly verbals between teenagers) that are sadly common to London and the UK.

Words like “scum” and “yobs” are used indiscriminately to describe every young person out after dark, and anyone in a parked car is deemed a drug dealer. There has been noise nuisance but the real issue here is enforcement.

The Royal Parks staff are not empowered to enforce regulations against amplified music, which falls to the police. There are real problems with a lack of toilets and with litter — issues that will not be solved by gating the park — and to address these, those for and against the gates have formed a group. Anyone is welcome to join us. Martin Fisher