10 April 2025 UPDATE

SUCCESS!!!!

Thank you to all who have signed the petition.

Camden have today announced a 'halt' to barbecues in Waterlow Park, which is excellent and we are pleased they have heeded public opinion, however, as you will see from the official Camden letter below, they have resisted a permanent total ban. We are therefore asking people to continue to sign the petititon until we get assurance from Camden that a permanent barbecue ban will be put in place.

OFFICIAL LETTER FROM CAMDEN PARK SERVICES MANAGER:

From: Gabi Howard <Gabi.Howard@camden.gov.uk>
Date: Thu, 10 Apr 2025 at 09:21
Subject: Waterlow Park and BBQs
To: tag@waterlowparktrust.org.uk <tag@waterlowparktrust.org.uk>

Dear TAG, 

Please find below, an updated position about BBQs at Waterlow Park. Camden’s parks are vital spaces for our residents. Two out of five of our residents do not have access to a garden at their home and our parks offer beautiful spaces to relax, socialise and exercise. We want everyone to enjoy themselves and this means we will keep our policy of allowing barbecues in our parks in the summer under regular review. We will not be allowing barbecues in Waterlow Park, which has seen large BBQ parties that have disturbed other users of the park. During the coming weeks, we will be keeping other parks under review. From today, we will be updating our website, putting up NO BBQ banners at Waterlow Park and requesting a security patrol for the weekend.  We will also liaise with colleagues and staff to update them.  We might need to be prepared for it to take a little while for the messaging to change behaviour. We will be taking a communications led approach.  I will ask security, if they encounter BBQs in the park, to ask people to extinguish and dispose of them as soon as possible, and not to return to the park to BBQ in the future.  We will keep the BBQ bins operational and serviced for a couple of weeks while we go through this process.

Kind regards

Gabi Howard
Park Services Manager

Recreation Services
Supporting Communities
London Borough of Camden