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Wandsworth council have deemed the closure is necessary due to funds totalling 1.4 million pounds not being available to enable the zoo to be upgraded in order to meet the zoos licence due in 2005. This is the line you will hear when you ask why the zoo is closing. This is completely false. The zoo licencing board have carried out mid term inspections and have made various recommendations. These recommendations range from minor changes to a few enclosures, glass fronts to a number of enclosures, and to provide more education for visitors. Another reason given for the closure is that many of the excisting enclosures are crumbling and would take massive investment to put them right. This again is false. There are a number of enclosures that need minor repairs, as is the same for any working zoo, or business for that matter. Now here is the crux. The council want the zoo (a suppossed service although now identified as not being a core service, children having somewhere to enjoy themselves is not essential) to make a profit. The zoo has never been treated on a business footing, where the company is re-invested in order to progress and secure its future. Instead it has been left to fend for itself and has been seen as somewhat of a millstone around the council's neck. But now with a change in personnel and with the help of the local conservative councillors (of the fifty wandsworth councillors forty of them are conservative) the future of the zoo looks bleak. The closure is being pushed forward by wandsworth councillors Guy Senior of the shaftsbury ward, and Mr Edward Listor, the head of wandswoirth council, and by wansdworth's leisure and amenities department. For a council who have no money, they have just spent nearly 11 million pounds on regenerating battersea park, i.e flower beds, pathways and a fountain, of which 7 million pounds was given to the council from the lottery heratige fund. In fact upon investigation improvements have been made to most of the park surrounding the lepper colony, sorry, zoo. It is felt that the zoo does not fit in with the plans of some people who have no background or links with battersea park or the people of battersea and wandsworth. This is not a politcal party issue but a people issue. If you voted for the conservatives in the last local elections did you vote for the closure of battersea park children's zoo. Remember that the new elections are not until 2006 and six, which gives plenty of time to forget that the zoo was ever in the spotlight. The labour MP for battersea Martin Linton is backing a campaign to save the zoo along with many well known celebs that regularly visit the zoo. Their comments will appear on this site soon. You can contact Martin Linton on 0207 219 1181