Football in Potters Fields - abuse?

Local spaces should be used fairly and with respect for other users of the park. The grass strips at Potters Fields are rather small and many other people want to use the park just to sit down and relax in. The use of the park by the footballers as described by vicd does seem to be unresaonable in this case.

It seems the council is taking care of the matter by planting some large trees quite strategically and placing some work of arts in other areas around the park! Problem solved...now let's wait for Rodrigo Borgia and their orgies!

great ... we can restrict opportunities to exercise AND subsidise (even more) artists with one swish of the public spending brush.

well, you can't play footall at the moment - in fact you can't visit or transit most of the park in the runup to opening day thursday!

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Furthermore, who will accept legal liability if someone is injured - say a child nearby struck by a ball?

Oh good grief!

I watched this game for a while. Nearly all the boys and the adult player/coach/RSM were black, highly organised, high standard players and well behaved. A credit.

I'm happy to see this use of the park by permission a couple of times per week, repeat by permission.
http://pottersfields.blogspot.com/

cholmondeley,

i'm sure these footballers will be delighted to learn of your slightly patronising approval of their abilities.

i understand your point that highly skilled and organised players are less likely hit a child in the face, however i am mystified as to what the fact that "nearly all the boys and the adult... were black" has to do with it???

Why does no one ask the club who they represent? then if it really is that bad perhaps southwark can find them somewhere else..whats wrong with the astroturf at Tabard Park? assuming it's still there..

username wrote:

cholmondeley,
i'm sure these footballers will be delighted to learn of your slightly patronising approval of their abilities.

i understand your point that highly skilled and organised players are less likely hit a child in the face, however i am mystified as to what the fact that "nearly all the boys and the adult... were black" has to do with it???

Oh well, if praising footballers for playing well is patronising, colour me patronising. I guess you'll keep an eye out and report me for 'hate-speech' if appropriate.

To confirm your suspicions, here's the relevance of 'black' above.

1. It's descriptive. They were black.

2. A disproportionate number of bored, somewhat disaffected youth is black. I was a bored, disaffected white youth verging on criminality once myself and know that well-organised team soccer is an antidote.

As a local resident and frequent user of Potters Fields I am delighted to see it used in this way, providing it's by arrangement.

http://pottersfields.blogspot.com/

Assuming the team has a good striker..what speed does a football hit the net? I guess about ninety m.p.h..me mates are laughing and saying i'm nuts!

"providing its by arrangement" ... that is the crux of the matter, it is nothing to do with class, race or any other irrelevance. The point is that public space needs to be shared, and organised.

My point is that the people supposed to be doing the organising are, in this case, simply not doing their job.

They have not given permission to these people and thus have no idea whether they are playing once a week, twice, or every day ... whether at prime time or in a much less busy time slot.

What would happen if I and my team wanted to start using the same space all the time, or you and your team? It's about PERMISSION and ORGANISATION, no more, no less.