Pressure from park campaigners has forced Enfield Council into making a U-turn on the closure of park gates.

The gates at 22 of the borough’s open spaces had been agreed by the local authority nine months ago in a bid to save £26,000, much to the distain of park user groups who launched a petition for the council to revert its decision.

A decision had been put on hold by former environment cabinet member Cllr Chris Bond and new cabinet member Cllr Daniel Anderson has now put forward new proposals at next month’s scrutiny meeting.

This will see 14 parks that are currently fully locked will remain locked and the other eight will have toilets and vehicle barriers shut but not pedestrian entrances.

The u-turn has been welcomed by park groups and Friends of Enfield Park consortium head, Peter Gibbs, told the Enfield Independent that the pressure put on the council by user groups was essential in the change.

He said: “It is fair to say that without our pressure the council would have passed the policy nine months ago and that would have favoured nobody and would not have saved the council any money.”

Mr Gibbs also praised the approach by the new cabinet member and looked forward to working with Cllr Anderson.

He said: “I thought his approach was very refreshing, he understood our concerns and gave a good account of himself.

“We have invited him to the consortium meeting and we look forward to working with him in the future. I think the council was right to listen to the voice of the people who undeniably have grave concerns about the possibility of vandalism and anti-social behaviour coming to our beautiful parks.”

Cllr Daniel Anderson, said: "I fully understand the strength of feeling residents and park users have in relation to this issue and I am delighted we have come up with some proposals that I hope will please everyone.

"The facts are that our parks are not fortresses and if people want to get into them, they will, regardless of whether or not we lock them at night.

"However, I acknowledge that a significant number of people were vehemently opposed to these proposals and so we have listened to them and come up with a set of proposals that meet everyone's needs.

"I look forward to working with park groups and residents to continue to improve our parks, encourage more people to use them and make them the best in London. These proposals are more efficient while helping us make every penny count in tough times."

Deputy leader for the opposition Cllr Joanne Laban described the decision by Cllr Anderson as “bold”.

She said: "I welcome the new cabinet member's boldness in making a u-turn on the proposals to do a blanket wide cease of locking parks at night.

“I know up until a few weeks ago there were no plans to reverse the decision so this is an improvement. However 8 parks will now no longer be locked and that is concerning especially as some have high ASB levels indicated in the official documents last year.

“The rationale for reducing the number of parks being locked is to create a saving of £9,000 but if a swing is set fire to it will cost more to replace it than to lock the parks at night.

"The Council says it needs to make this saving to reduce revenue costs but at the same time it spent over £3,000 on making a film about holding an election which I don't believe is as important to residents as locking parks at night.

“The change of heart by the Labour Council has happened due to the opposition shown by the community and we should be proud of what we have achieved.

“We must not forget however that the campaign against the Council's plans to stop locking parks at night would not have occurred if the Council had bothered to consult nine months ago with its key partners including the Parks Police and Friends of the Parks Groups rather than take an arrogant and dictatorial approach to this issue."