The city Department of Parks and Recreation says that “staff error” led to the repeated padlocking of a green space in the Little Italy section of The Bronx where petition-signers are demanding the city remove a statue of Christopher Columbus.

That statue has been assigned a police guard, the Norwood News reported earlier this month, with a two-person unit outside the D’Auria-Murphy Triangle since June — one of a number of NYPD posts at Columbus statues in the city, including at Columbus Circle.