Residents have complained after drug dealing led Haringey Council to board up a shelter in Finsbury Park.
The permanent gazebo is situated northwest of Manor House tube station and east of the Finsbury Park Athletics Track and is enjoyed by park users as a social spot and for sheltering from the rain.
A Haringey Council spokesperson said: “We installed temporary hoardings around a shelter in Finsbury Park to assist the Metropolitan Police Service with ongoing operations to disrupt drug trading and other criminal activity in the area.”
The Metropolitan Police confirmed that five arrests have been made in relation to the events in the last month.
The gazebo, funded by the National Lottery Heritage Fund, has been boarded up for more than two weeks. The council said this will “send a clear message to the public that this is no longer a drug supply location”.
Clive Carter, co-chair of the Friends of Finsbury Park, said Haringey Council should address the issue of drug dealing in Finsbury Park rather than remove the gazebo from public use.
He said: “Why does the council think that the drug dealers won’t return the moment the boarding is taken off?”
Mr Carter, a former councillor of Highgate Ward, said that drug-dealers had been moved from the southeast side of the park after CCTV cameras had been installed in the area last year.
He said Haringey Council have not yet finished installing active CCTV cameras on the northern side where the gazebo is located.
He added: “I’m afraid this is typical of the Council”.
Residents have been critical of the council’s progress on a neighbourhood forum as the gazebo had only recently been brought back into use after it had been taken over by pigeons.
