Roundwood Park protest outside the closed toilets earlier this summer
Following the lack of action by Brent Council after the August protest in Roundwood Park calling for accessible, safe and clean public toilets in the park a petition has been launched.
It is not a new issue, nearly 10 years ago I wrote on Wembley Matters: It's time to re-launch a campaign for decent public toilet provision - it's an equality issue
KOVE (Kilburn Older Voices Exchange) staged a procession down Kilburn High Road calling for better toilet facilities back in 2024 LINK. and more recently a 'pop up' toilet has been set up by volunteers in Kilburn's Grange Park.
The current petition, Re-open Roundwood Park toilets, was set up by local campaigner Amandine Alexandre on the Brent Council website and is open until October 31st 2025.
Perhaps we can get some pledges from candidates before the Council elections next year?
The Petition
We the undersigned petition the council to re-open Roundwood Park existing toilets and work on the design of modern toilets, less prone to attract anti-social behaviour
Roundwood Park users have been deprived of public toilets since July 2022.
The lack of public toilets in Roundwood Park is affecting absolutely everyone - parents with children, disabled people, older people, people with health issues etc. It prevents lots of residents from using the park as much as they would like and it stops too many people from coming to the park altogether.
It's particularly an issue for women of all ages. We, women, spend less time in parks than men - and that affects our health and sense of well-being in a very negative way. Reversely, having access to inclusive green spaces boosts our health. For example, girls are less likely to be anxious and depressed when they spend time in green spaces.
On August 2nd, I was part of a group of local residents who gathered in the park to ask for the re-opening of the public toilets. Again, our request fell on deaf ears and we were told by Cabinet member Krupa Sheth that we should use the cafe toilets.
This is an inappropriate answer that fails to understand that the cafe toilets cannot be a replacement for public toilets and that the closure of the public toilets is creating a health issue for residents.
As Brent Council is about to spend £3 millions on Green Corridors in Roundwood and Church End to encourage more people who live in Church End to use Roundwood Park and fight against health inequalities, now is the time to re-open the existing public toilets or build new toilets in a different, better location in the park where there will be a reduced risk of anti-social behaviour taking place.
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