Plea to get South Norwood country park visitor centre reopened is falling on deaf ears, say frustrated campaigners

By Harrison Galliven, Local Democracy Reporter

South Norwood residents have called for Croydon council’s help to reopen South Norwood Country Park’s visitor centre – nearly four years since a fire caused it to close.

Despite previously making commitments to reopen the centre, volunteers now say the council is ‘ignoring’ them and the visitor centre remains boarded up.

The friends of South Norwood Country Park (SNCP) have been working to reopen the centre for the past few years, as they see it as a vital community resource.

In a petition attracting nearly 3,000 signatories, the group said: “The longer the centre remains closed, the more damage will be done and the more it will cost to repair.”

Before its closure during the first lockdown of 2020, the centre hosted educational classes for nearby schools and acted as a base for conservation volunteers who worked to protect the park’s biodiversity. The centre was also home to the park’s only public toilets.

Friend of SNCP member and South Norwood resident Lucy Hopkins said: “We’ve got a really engaged community around the country park and we’ve been pressuring Croydon council for a long, long time to give us our facility back.

“From a personal point of view it’s really important. My kids’ schools are a couple of streets away and they aren’t able to do any forest schooling or any sort of meaningful outdoor learning because the facility is not there anymore.

“It was used by volunteers, like the friends of South Norwood Country Park and The Conservation Volunteers (TCV), as a base and storage space. It also acts as a shed for the parkrun volunteers who organise the weekly 5k run.

“Before this all happened, there was an environmental garden that wasn’t being properly maintained by Croydon and we were looking to get some money together to fix it. That has now had to be put on hold.”

Among those joining the campaign to have the centre re-opened have been local Labour councillor Amy Foster and Croydon Central MP Sarah Jones, along with Croydon’s Mayor, Jason Perry, who visited the site in December last year.

 

However, according to Lucy, support from the council has waned since this promising start. She said: “We had the meeting in December and it’s now April, we’re just not getting anywhere. Now I’m just sending weekly emails, and there’s not any form of response. I’m literally just being ignored.”

A spokesman for Croydon council said: “We have restored a Park Ranger to South Norwood Country Park and will continue to work with the Friends of South Norwood Country Park and other residents to protect the park for the future.

“The council has been exploring options to renovate the visitor and education centre since it closed following fire damage in 2020. Works to renovate the centre were halted during 2021 due to resourcing and the council’s documented financial challenges since 2020.

“The Mayor and council officers met with residents at the park in February and we will continue to work with the community to get this facility restored.”

Pictured top: Lucy Hopkins at the park (Picture: Harrison Galliven)