Yesterday noticed half a dozen gentlemen of about 18 to 20 playing football on the bowling green. I looked for a member of staff to advise but could not find anybody. Not even an emergency number to call.
I assume the council spends a great deal of money to keep the bowling green in good order.
Also especially annoying as plenty of space on the grass outside the green

Isn't Mayow Park in SE26?

I'd consider Mayow park both SE23/SE26. It runs along Dacas Rd, which says SE23

Call directry enquieries and ask to be through to the closest (open) police station. Would prob be classed as criminal damage. If the police arrested all of the footie players it would make their figures look great. A win win situation!!

Thanks for the advice but cannot be confident the police would be happy coming out to such an occurrence. My point was where was the park keeper or even phone number to call an emergency keeper.
I think Mayow Road might just be in SE 26 for which I apologise, but very close to the frontier

When in doubt, call em out!!

If we were all a bit more civil minded idiotic behaviour like this would be nipped in the bud. Call the police, make your report, the rest is up to them. You have done your civic duty.

A quaint notion. There hasn't been a park keeper in Mayow Park for perhaps 40 years; they even demolished his house some 10 years ago. Glendale is responsible for maintaining the park and, I would imagine, the bowling green, but I doubt whether their remit extends to maintaining order in the way an old-fashioned "parkie" would. I agree, it's down to the police.

Incidentally, northern part of the park is in SE23 but I'm pretty sure that the bowling green is in SE26.

Thanks Steve and Others
So Frontier goed through the park. Did not see any guards.

I will in future call 999 and see what happens , if anything. What would they charge them with and what would be the sentence. ?? Botany Bay I guess.

So no keeper for 40 years. What a disgrace. Seems also to recall there was a park cafe near bowling green entrance.

All of Mayow Park is in SE26, see red line for the postcode boundary on http://www.streetmap.co.uk/streetmap.dll...0&A=Y&Z=1, but it is used by plenty of people in SE23.

Does the bowling green have a fence round it to make it a private club? In which case the police could warn people for trespass and criminal damage (if playing football causes problems on the green). Prosecution is unlikely but community support officers should be able to prevent this from happening. There is plenty of space to play football in Mayow Park, unlike Horniman where games always seem like an uphill battle.

Yes Michael bowling green does have a fence all round it but they climbed through a hole. There are a number of signs saying only bowls permitted. I have mailed the council. I will advise reply

The boundary doesn't seem to be that well defined through the park, and it depends on which source you use. This is how it appears on one of my maps:

...not that it makes any difference.

Bloody ee-jots. What possesses people to do stuff like this??

Because no one stops them and if you try they would prob beat you up. Low priority to the police so they get on with it. That is the crux of the problems we have these days, once the smaller points of law keeping are eroded then the medium points start getting eroded to etc, etc.

I suspect that the charge would be criminal damage. Difficult to prove, though because you would actually need to see them damage the grass.

Obviously, the fence needs to be repaired.

Yes I agree but the fence there would not stop guys of 16 or so if they want to get in.
I have had NO reply from the council as to what I should do if it happens again. Obviously they like spending lots of money on the bowling green for it then to be damaged.

I have sometimes seen PCSOs in the park so if it happens again you could look around for them. That said, when I have seen them in the park they usually sit on a bench enjoying the sun rather than walking around...not exactly a proactive approach.

By the way, does anyone actually play bowls in the park? I probably go there at least two or three times a week, weekdays and weekends, and I have never seen anyone playing bowls there. While it doesn't excuse the lads playing football there, neither does it seem quite right for such a lovely part of the park to be excluded from general use when it is hardly ever used. Or do I just keep missing the matches?!

I have elderly neighbours who are members of the bowls club. They advise it was vandalised some months ago and only just been repaired
Not sure if the games have started there yet.

Yeah, I've seen games being played from time to time.

I have received a reply from Mr Vince Buchanan at The Council
He confirmed they have been many incidents like this. There is no park keeper but Glendale visit at least twice a day.
If anyone sees an occurence like this they should call 0208 318 3986 / 24 hours number.
They are also going to put a notice up with this phone number.
Hope this helps
Was glad to see bowls being played on Tuesday

that bowling green must cost ??thousands to maintain (and there is the top notch FH Bowls club just up the road), and probably serves a couple of dozen people at most? Yet when local young people asked for a skateboard facility a while ago, they got the usual response....