We received the following response from Cllr Juliet McCaffery to our letter to the Argus about this year’s Pride event:
I spent three hours at Pride on the Saturday afternoon and saw what a wonderful event it was, but I also saw how crowded it was. Perhaps Pride has grown too big for Preston Park. Also there were insufficient toilets and this led to inappropriate behaviour at least in the bushes near the Church.
It was particularly disappointing to go down to the Park with my dog on Monday morning around 9.00 and see the appalling mess – a sea of paper, cans, bottles and glass right across the park and even a burnt out structure. It looked like nothing had been cleared. I immediately phoned Cllr Mears, the Leader of the Council and she told me that though clearing up was part of the arrangement with Pride, Council workers were now clearing up the mess. They did a really good job, but considering how many families and young children and dog walkers use the park, it was very worrying still to see them on Tuesday on their hands and knees painstakingly picking up small pieces of glass.
The event made the park virtually unusable for a week in the school holidays. I told Cllr. Mears that this was not acceptable.
Cllr Juliet McCaffery, Labour
See also the responses from Citypark’s Alan Griffiths and Cllr Kevin Allen.