Deputy leader of Camden Council Cllr Pat Callaghan

• FURTHER to the July 7 CNJ report on Town Hall chiefs backing park gates for Primrose Hill…

Dear Cllr Pat Callaghan, it is unfortunate when freedom to enjoy life is taken to the point of disrespect for others.

This has clearly reached a point whereby curtailment is needed to stop 3am revellers on Primrose Hill.

However many such situations arise because of poor, or total lack of, early intervention from management which might have nipped these excesses in the bud.

This brings me to the situation at Swiss Cottage and its ill-defined open, unregulated, open space (SCOS). See my letter, (Open space in need of a plan, June 30).

We who live in very close proximity to this open space have similar problems which might now be exacerbated by the Primrose Hill gate closure.

Swiss Cottage Open Space is not covered by a park byelaw – see byelaws, especially point 4, and more. This situation will remain for some time because of the cost involved in setting up new byelaws.

However it does have “mechanisms” which give some powers to curtail unruly behaviour. Unfortunately no parks officer exercises these mechanisms at SCOS.

Reading Camden’s byelaws it is reasonable to assume that in the meantime Camden intended the parks department to offer putative care of these unregulated open spaces via the “mechanisms”.

Will it help our situation now that SCOS is in Primrose Hill ward whereby the councillors Anna Burrage, Matt Cooper and Ajok Athian will be familiar with such night-time problems from their experience of Primrose Hill?

I sincerely hope that they and you will put some considerable thought, followed by action, into protecting our right to sleep at night. This will require waking up some other departments which are not functioning in favour of any resolution here.

Fortunately our newly-introduced safety officer, Christina Nunn, has been extremely co-operative and informative in offering her services as far as they are allowed to go, (up to midnight).

She has a full understanding of the limitations of night-time control and it would be well worth consulting her for ideas on how to proceed and whom to engage.

To our present despair there is no overnight control of SCOS. The police don’t come, too busy dealing with real crime. Camden’s noise department only works from 9am to 5.30pm.

Camden’s night patrol only covers estates and would have no authority to disperse a group on this patch. A bizarre situation.

Finally, reactive control is not what we are seeking as this would not solve our right to peace and quiet at night. There needs to be a clear preventative solution to this problem.

The answer to that is obvious. I’ll leave it to those who think out of the box as to what they think that might be.

ELAINE CHAMBERS, NW3