AIBU to be surprised that all of London's Royal Parks are closed today because of the wind?

[Westfacing]

In a statement on its website, the Royal Parks said:

Due to severe wind gusts caused by Storm Amy, all of the royal parks, plus Brompton Cemetery and Victoria Tower Gardens will be closed on Saturday October 4.
This closure includes all park roads and cycleways, cafes and kiosks, parks sports venues, the Serpentine lido and boating lake, and the royal parks shop.
It said opening times on Sunday will be delayed because of safety inspections.
“The safety of visitors and staff is our top priority,” the Royal Parks said.
“We’re sorry for any inconvenience that these closures may cause.”

A bit of an over reaction I'd say, or am I missing something? I've been out and there are gusty winds but not dangerously so.

I understand that trees get blown down and that's a safety concern, even so....

Falling trees do kill people in storms. The park is a leisure facility and doesn't need to be open. It makes sense to close it.

I think I was blasé about storms until an episode of Ambulance a few years ago about Storm Doris - you can probably find it online. I think they went out to a young man who very narrowly escaped an extremely nasty car accident with a falling tree, and a woman who had been on her lunch break in town from her retail job and been hit by a falling sign and instantly killed. That stuck with me and has made me more cautious about being out and about in windy weather. The ambulance staff were upset about people being casual about "a bit of wind" when they had seen such tragedy. It was very well edited.

Or less diligent in monitoring the actual condition of their trees in the first place and so don’t know what the risk is ;)

Presumably they are managed by a different group of people, who made a different decision?

I think it's pretty silly. We are so risk averse now and it's a lovely sunny autumn day. I would have hoped the royal Parks do tree audits and remove trees that are a risk of falling.

Also a lot of parks are actually commons with no fencing so can't be closed, much are the people in charge might want to. That will explain some of the OP's open parks

It is very windy day. I would be awful if somebody were hit by a falling tree or branch - especially if it were a child or vulnerable adult. I'm presuming the Royal Parks have had some bad experiences in tbe past or know of some unfortunate accidents in other parks in the past.

It’s because we had such a dry summer - not enough rain really harms the trees, and even healthy looking young trees have boughs that will break. A woman was killed by a falling tree at Kew Gardens I think a few years ago. YABU I’m afraid.

There's been damage to some mature oak trees locally in recent months from this. Fortunately the tree that "dropped" a bough on a calm day is clear of the well-used footpath so no one was harmed.

A couple of weeks ago, DS narrowly missed a branch dropping by a few meters while he walked home from school. It was breezy, but not unusually so. If it had caught him, it would have been somewhat unpleasant! While it wasn't the thickest of branches, it was a couple of metres long with a fair amount of leafy twigs on it, and the momentum of falling would have been dangerous.

Years ago I had a tree fall in front of the car during 40mph winds. Fortunately I caught the motion out of the corner of my eye, braked hard and stopped 10m to spare.

The risk is higher than average due to the water shortage stress from the summer and the usual increased risk of trees being leafy. Later in the winter when the (deciduous) trees are dormant and bare, their wind resistance is better.

It's not even that windy

The public can't be trusted to follow advice and stay away from them, so the parks management are being sensible

Yes, I suppose you're right about that - it's a pity, as there are swathes of Hyde Park, for instance, that have no trees and it would be perfectly safe.

Well go walk under some other trees then hon! Honestly if you want a walk and you absolutely must be under the trees, there are plenty of non-royal parks you can go to.

Bloody hell.

The general wind might not be too high in plaves but for example there was a gust just short of 40 mph out at Northolt 15 minutes ago - there are some blustery conditions around.

Well anyone with common sense wouldn't walk under the trees but would still enjoy a walk in the park. London parks aren't forests there are lots of open spaces.

Hon

As I understand it old trees are even more likely to shed branches after a very dry summer such as we have had.

Bloody hell, I feel for anyone in any public facing service. Damned if they do, damned if they don’t and armchair experts whinging from every direction

Wise decision. Only a couple of months ago a young mother was killed by a falling tree in a park in Blackburn

Yeah YABU

Well off you go for your walk. Up to you.
They have covered themselves if you get crushed to death. 🤷🏻‍♀️

It's figuring out which way to run!

I think due to drought conditions this summer, many trees will have been weakened and therefore may be more prone to falling or branches breaking off.

Well then go walk in an open space 😂

There are SO many places you can go for a walk in London, that are not Royal parks, to be honest you just seem contrary.

There's a lot of old trees in the Royal Parks. Ones that will have structural issues that have developed over hundreds of years but which are rich wildlife habitat. If the parks were open as normal and people had free reign, it would make 'doing nothing' (or minimal work) indefensible and so part of what makes the parks special would be removed. If there's less people on site, the likelihood of someone being struck by a falling tree will be considerably lower.

Kew are probably keen to avoid another death at their site.

As well as the tree issue, there seems to be a lot of parents treating graveyards like play parks. My GD (8) was being blown back, this morning, here in the NW.

Loads of National Trust sites are closed too. Safety of staff getting to work, and risk of being sued