There's quite a debate going on regarding the state of Brent's parks on social media. The 'creation' of meadows was a decision based on saving money (£0.5m) backed by a claim that it would support natural diversity LINK. It has been implemented by simply not cutting the grass. Some are happy for sections of the parks to be left unmown hoping it will provide diversity for nature but others point out that real wild flower meadows need proper planning and maintenance.
Local resident Jaine Lunn succeeded in persuading Brent Council and their contractor Veolia to reduce the unmown area in King Edward VII park to enable children to play ball games
Meanwhile a reader has sent me the above photograph of the 'cricket pitch' at King Edward VII park in Wembley commenting, 'I forgot how much they spent on doing this but they shouldn't have bothered.'
There is an extensive discussion about the issue on the View from Dollis Hill Facebook page regarding Gladstone Park. LINK
As a contribution to the meadows debate here are pictures of the meadows and 'scrape' at Mason's Field in Kingsbury where the Barn Hill Conservation Group has transformed a former playing field into a meadow. The transformation involved a substantial amount of work by volunteers including planting thousands of plug plants. See LINK.
Similar work was done at the University of Westminster wild flower meadow which is hand-scythed at the end of the season.
Mason's Field on Friday:
By contrast this is a view of one of the Gladstone Park meadows:
