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Eid festival causes parking and noise troubles
ANGRY residents and councillors have blamed a lack of communication after thousands of worshippers descended on a park, taking them by complete surprise, although the organisers are maintaining it was a success.
The Eid celebrations, part of a Muslim festival, took place on Sunday at Hayes End Community Park, in Kingsway, Hayes.
The festivities were held on Sunday, kicking off early in the morning, but residents, unaware the celebrations were even taking place, became furious that so many people came to the area with no warning.
Councillors had to come down to the park along with the police Safer Neighbourhood Teams to calm down residents who were unable to get out of their drives, and were awoken by the festival Tannoy.
A number of angry residents contacted the Gazette on Monday, feeling that they had been ignored, and not even consulted about the whole event.
The festival was organised by the Quba Islamic Centre, in Golden Crescent, Hayes.
Mohammed Adam, a volunteer, said: "From my perspective it went well for us, people from across Hillingdon were able to celebrate in one place.
"After what happened in Harrow we worked hard to avoid trouble, and there was none, there were more people than we expected, up to 4,000, but fortunately we had back up volunteers to help out and Sunday was a good day to have such an event.
Councillor Janet Gardner, who represents Botwell (Lab) said: "As one of the Botwell Councillors who attended the event in the Park, I can understand how angry the residents are about being kept in the dark about the whole event and the chaos it caused in surrounding streets.
"I myself would be furious if I was woken by a Tannoy system at 8am, or the sound of cars trying to park and I have to say I would have been the first to complain.
"I can only assume that there must have been a lack of communication between the organisers and the council regarding measures that should have been taken to limit the nuisance for the residents."
Councillor Mo Kursheed, who represents Botwell (Lab) said: "The venue was OK and these events need to be promoted, but the council did not do their job properly and these events need to be managed properly.
"Under the circumstances the Safer Neighbourhood Team did a marvellous job, they were not expecting it to be so big."
Philomena Bach, director of environment and consumer protection, said: "The council was assured that there would be under 1,000 people attending however, the actual number far exceeded this.
"Had the organiser made the council aware of the potential size of this event, we would have notified residents living in the local area.
"The council worked together with the police and the organisers to best manage the situation on the day and we are disappointed that the event caused disruption to some of our residents.
"The council will be meeting with the organisers to discuss how this can be avoided in the future."
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I do not have any problem with any religious celebrations, what i do have a problem with is that when it takes place in a PUBLIC park that i take my two children to every sunday, When we arrived on sunday not only was i surprised by the amount of people but more taken by the fact that there was not one sign warning the neighbourhood that this was taking place. What made me angry was i went to two different entrances only to be told that we was not allowed in as we were WHITE and this was a Muslim celebration. So i put it to the council and the police that on ST Georges day in April We will be allowed to have a funfair and marquee in the park and only allow white people in and not any other religion or will this be classed as rascist. Also if the council had seen the mess that was left over on monday moring. I thought as a tax payer this was a PUBLIC park and you can go to anytime obviously not. I am not a rascist as i have multi nationals in my own family but whe im told i cant do something because im white is an absolue joke, sort it out hillingdon council or you will find that you are making people become angry.
I am sorry to say that i find above comment made by Donna as completely baseless and biased. I have witnessed so as others have including the Botwell safer neighborhood team which have done tremendous job keeping the event safe , that this event was open to all parts of communities no matter race or religion. As matter of fact just for little insight information for Donna Muslims believe that all races are equal and that the term racism does not exist within our community as there were few youngsters living in the locality who were not muslim but enjoying all the Rides and other entertainment available at the event.
We had member of parliament present who was not muslim as many others were there.
i,m with Donna on this one,first thing i knew about this was when i saw hoards of people heading down the uxbridge road.
was it advertised?,i imagine a white person trying to enter the field would have been pretty intimidated as i didnt see one white face in the crowd.
as for the St George,s day bash......dont hold your breath.
I am an English and my Kids had a great time as we were welcomed in open arms. There was also other White people in the Park, I am very cross with the comments from Donna and Jimmy may be they should have visited the park first before putting the comments. Why spoil it for the others, it was great bringing the community together. I am sure our Chuch bells wake people up on Sundays!!!