Southwark Lib Dem councillor James Barber is not happy about every household having to pay £3 a year with the council tax to maintain the Lea Valley Park -or the Lee Valley Regional Park to use the official name.

He says that it looks a lovely park from pictures for those that live near it.

But he adds: “Trouble is I’ve yet to meet anyone in Southwark who’s heard of it, let alone know where it is, can tell me its purpose, let alone realise that they are paying for it.”

This is not the time to cut the tax. Southwark residents now live very close to the Lea Valley. It takes just 9 minutes from Bermondsey to Canning Town on the Jubilee Line.

By 2012 the continuous path from the source of the River Lea near Luton will have been extended south from the Olympic Park to East India Docks via Bow Creek at Canning Town.

The Lea Valley north-south green corridor contains much of England’s history from the tomb of King Harold who died at the Battle of Hastings to the invention of the Thermos flask at Ponders End.

The park is an investment which we should all enjoy. For those who cannot walk too far there will even be a waterbus service from next year.