Hyde Park 'trashed' by protest

The clearing up will take two days

Hyde Park took a "hammering" on Saturday when it hosted one of the biggest days of public protest ever seen in the UK.

Spring bulbs were trampled down by hordes of protesters and large patches of grass were ruined by bonfires at the mass rally against war with Iraq.

An estimated £150,000 of damage was caused as up to a million people coverged on Hyde Park.

Theo Moore of the Royal Parks Agency said about 20% of the 350-acre park had been damaged, mainly centring on the Reformers' Tree area, where the protesters' stage was located.

'Totally trashed'

Fifty workers mounting the clean-up operation on Sunday were greeted with the piles of rubbish strewn across the park and scores of dumped anti-war placards.

Mr Moore said: "It's pretty rough. It has taken a hammering in certain areas.

Boarding on the statue of Achilles was vandalised

"People have inadvertently trampled all over bulbs and other plants we put in, which we cannot redo until next year.

"People unfortunately started bonfires. They were told to wrap up warm, but they obviously weren't warm enough.

"Placards were burnt on some of the fires, making them quite large. This has caused some very large burn patches which we will have to turf over.

"Parts of the turf have been totally trashed. Other parts got away lightly."

'We'll be back'

However, Mr Moore said that the park could have encountered a festival-style mud bath if it had rained.

"We were lucky with the weather. Had it rained we would be looking like Glastonbury.

"The crowd wasn't badly behaved."

While most problems had been anticipated, some things were unexpected, Mr Moore said.

"A truck carrying Mecca Cola reversed over a water main that was feeding the portable lavatories. We had a stream of water 20ft in the air."

"We have coped. We've taken a battering but we'll be back.

Organiser John Rees said the turnout had been fantastic with an "electric atmosphere but also very serious and determined".