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....

Monitoring is mandated for insurance purposes. I can’t imagine they’d fall foul on that score!

I read somewhere that because of the very dry summer trees are particularly susceptible to losing branches this autumn. If this is so then it makes sense to reduce the possibility of someone being under a branch when it falls.

What an odd thing to complain about. Of course they have to close in high winds.

The Royal parkeepers/managers will have done a public safety risk assessment for the parks they are responsible for, considered their insurance, health of their trees, looked at the worst case scenario etc and made this decision accordingly. Can you imagine the headlines if a rotten tree branch in a royal park hit someone and hurt them or worse? It could be policy, or a term of their public liability insurance, that they most close when a storm warning is in force.

Other parks will have done a similar exercise and may have come to different conclusions.