VIDEO:Residents and councillor join forces in a bid to have Havering parks locked at night.

The decision to leave Havering parks unlocked at night has angered locals who use our parks on a regular basis, as they fear vandals and anti social behaviour will ruin the parks.

Due to huge cuts in the budget and a very large deficit inherited, the new administration have had to make additional cuts in a desperate bid to keep the borough going, despite heavy financial burdens. As a result, the decision was taken to stop locking our parks at night time to make extra savings.

However, this decision has angered many residents who use the parks on a daily basis as they fear the parks are facing damages by mindless vandals.

St Albans ward Councillor Judith Holt, yesterday met with resident Robert Hooper who uses Hylands park everyday and has already seen the impact it has had on the park.

Mr Hooper told the Havering Daily: “We have had anti social behaviour already. Over the weekend we saw broken glass outside of the cricket club running all the way to Osborne Road. I’ve had incidents outside my house at 3am. This will be a complete degradation of our parks.

“It used to be like this many years ago when we had trees cut down, cars driven in and burnt out in the park. We then campaigned and the gates were locked and it all died down.

“Now we fear the parks will become no go areas.”

Councillor Holt has launched a petition to fight this decision.