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About the Warden
Officially, the Park Warden's role is to patrol the park areas ensuring that they are litter free and that no undesirable/illegal activities occur. The Warden also alerts other council services to deal with issues such as fly-tipping, stolen/abandoned vehicles, graffiti and any animal related problems such as lost or dangerous dogs. He also interacts with non-council services such as shopping trolley recovery companies, civil engineering companies working in the park, animal welfare agencies (RSPCA, Mayhew Animal Home etc.) and many others who benefit from his local knowledge and presence.
The regular Warden works a five day week, having Tuesday and Wednesday off in lieu of the weekend. He is on duty during daylight hours, 8:00am - 3:00pm in the winter months, and 12:00 - 7:00pm in the summer months. Anyone who uses the park regularly, will often see him out and about on his patrols.
On the regular Wardens days off, a stand in Warden is supposed to be in attendance, but the usual individual tasked with this duty, has acquired quite a reputation over the years for not doing a stroke of work, never leaving the Pavilion building other than to visit the shops for his own benefit, and for 'disappearing' during his working day, something his superiors are fully aware of, but choose to ignore! If either Warden is not available, a mobile Warden is supposed to keep an eye on the park, but there is little evidence that this ever happens.
Park users know that in the absence of the regular Warden, NOTHING GETS DONE! - the people tasked with the upkeep of the park, including many tiers of management, simply do not do their jobs, everything gets left until the regular Warden returns, then he has a backlog of work to clear up!
The Warden collects up to 15 large bin bags of litter from the park every DAY, that doesn't include what is put into the litter bins (that is collected by the gardeners twice a week)! He also collects up to 5 supermarket trolleys a week. Not many weeks pass without some large object such as a piece of furniture being dumped in the park, the Warden arranges for this to be removed as soon as a vehicle and sufficient manpower to lift it is available.
The Warden often acts as 'liaison' between park users and agencies such as the Police or Ambulance service for example, using his direct radio link to his control room to speed up the summoning of assistance.
The Warden ensures that the children's play areas are not put to uses other than there intended purpose, such as a meeting place for teenage gangs, an exercise area for dangerous dogs used in dog fighting, and having groups of drinking/drunk adults congregating there.
Despite assumptions to the contrary, some of the CCTV cameras around the park do work, the Warden often uses his direct radio link to his control room to get these to look at a specific area, to perhaps monitor someone acting suspiciously around one of the children's play areas, or perhaps to keep an eye out for children who are lost. Without his instruction, these cameras rarely scan around to monitor events in general, they are fixed monitoring entrances to the park.
Within the last few weeks, the author has twice had cause to alert the Warden to men acting suspiciously around the children's playground, he did as he always does and got onto his control room to alert them to a potential problem, then directed the CCTV cameras to where the individuals were so that their movements and actions could be monitored.
From time to time, there have been incidents with dangerous dogs, these are often dogs owned specifically for their aggression, either as fighting dogs or as 'status' dogs. A number of ordinary dog owners and their pets have been attacked by these dangerous animals and have even been asked if they want to put their dog into a organised dog fight. The Warden has with the assistance of the council Animal Welfare Officer acted to get these dealt with. There are also a number of inconsiderate owners who whilst their animals are not inherently aggressive, they do prove to be a nuisance because no control is exercised over them, the Warden monitors these incidents, warns the owners and if necessary gets action taken by the Animal Welfare Officer.
Because the Warden knows so many people, lost dogs rarely become a real problem. If a dog is found wandering, there is usually someone who knows the owner or where it lives, so it never gets 'officially' into the system and a burden on other council staff or local dogs homes, but simply repatriated with a usually very grateful owner. Likewise with dogs that get lost, there is usually a little 'posse' of fellow dog walkers and park users who go hunting for it, frequently with very quick results, so that's another animal that doesn't prove to be a burden on the system before it's repatriated with it's owner. These actions are all coordinated by the Warden.
Children, and adults with mental health issues, that get lost, and we've had quite a few, are dealt with in much the same way as lost dogs, the community of park users under the co-ordination of the Warden set out searching as soon as the alarm is raised, no delays, usually with a happy outcome because not enough time has passed for anything unfortunate to happen.
Unofficially, since he was first installed in the park around 8 years ago, a great many people have had direct cause to thank the Warden for his presence, and vigilance beyond his official duty.
Many of the householders with properties adjacent to the park have the Warden to thank for preventing burglaries. On his routine patrols, he will alert the Police to suspicious activity in and around neighbouring properties.
A number of people have been assisted when they have become unwell, either through illness, accident or self abuse of alcohol and/or drugs, left unattended, some of this people would undoubtedly have been at great risk and in some cases may well have died through lack of urgent attention. We did unfortunately have an incident a while ago when a young man died whilst sleeping rough, hidden deep in a shrubbery, without the vigilance of the Warden his remains may have lain undiscovered for many months if not years! Fortunately thanks solely to the Warden most cases have a much happier outcome.
The Warden proves to be of great assistance to the emergency services,
as his excellent knowledge of the park area and surrounding streets allows
him to direct them to an incident by the quickest & most appropriate
route.
A good example is last year when a fire was deliberately started in a wilderness
area at the north end of the park which is inaccessible to fire service
vehicles. The fire quickly took hold and was becoming a serious threat
to buildings in the adjacent industrial site, but thanks to the specific
knowledge of the Warden, the fire service were directed to the scene and
dealt with it before far more extensive damage was caused.
An 'unofficial' role that the Warden performs is to keep an eye on the river, not only for flood risk, but also for excessive pollution. The river is the responsibility of the Environment Agency, not Brent council, but the EA do ask the Warden to pass on information to them.
Another problem with the river is that it suffers on occasions from serious pollution that could be hazardous to health, with both raw human sewage that has overflowed from the local sewers, and heavy chemical pollution from the local industrial estate. The Warden reports these incidents to the Environment Agency if he spots them during one of his many daily patrols, in response the EA act promptly to deal with the problem by either lowering the water level or dealing with the pollution.
The Warden is highly respected by residents and park users, he is considered approachable, so that many concerns are voiced to him 'just in case', with the knowledge that he will act if necessary to deal with any issues that develop, or give advice about what to do.
The local Police, especially the PCSO's regularly chat with him to 'get a feel' for what is going on around the area - he is our local 'Bobby on the beat'.
The Warden has received much praise from residents and groups over the years, the council have received letters of thanks from children's groups for his assistance during events in the park and they have also come in for some very strong criticism when they have been negligent and failed to ensure he is fully supported by his co-workers and superiors, many of whom make his attempts at keeping the park in good order a very difficult job indeed.
His reward, and the cost to the Council, for this valuable service, a little over half the average UK salary, in fact he's paid a sum a lot closer to the compulsory minimum wage than the average salary! It's a pitifully low amount for the service he performs, and the savings he undoubtedly makes in terms of preventing loss of Council assets, such as buildings and children's play equipment through vandalism.
If you can find fault with the park, the chances are that it is not the Wardens fault, it is someone else in the council who has failed to do their job in providing support to the Warden!
After the cuts become effective on 31st March, there will be NO FULL TIME Warden in the park. The proposed management of the park will be reliant on one of 5 mobile Wardens, who will also service the other 75 parks and open spaces in the borough, and whose duties will be as key holders to lock and unlock park gates (we don't have any!) and doors to buildings (the Pavilion has no current use, therefore no need to be unlocked!). Few of the traditional fixed Warden tasks will be catered for by the mobile Wardens, occasional (weekly?) litter picking will be passed over to the gardeners, other roles (policing, etc.) will simply be abandoned.
With no real need for a mobile Warden to attend the park to actually do anything, it is a certainty that it will never receive any kind of monitoring or inspection, it will be 'missed' by the Warden who is supposed to visit! The parks service management has demonstrated over many years that it is not capable or intent on looking after this park properly, that is with a dedicated and hard working static Warden in place, what hope is there when he has gone?