Groundscare

Parks maintenance in a world of new austerity – the challenges we face

Paul Rabbitts, chair of the Parks Management Association looks at the challenges facing those who maintain our parks

As the current chair of the Parks Management Association, I have many conversations with colleagues across the sector who work in parks and open spaces. Within Local Government, the charitable sector, trusts, volunteer groups, we manage among us all, over 27,000 parks. We face incredibly growing challenges in our sector.

In 2016, the previous ‘State of the UK Public Parks’ report was published by the Heritage Lottery Fund. That report identified that there was a need for central government, local authorities and a variety of partners to work together to address the problem of declining budgets, and the impact of the loss of finance on the quality, availability and future sustainability of the UK’s parks. In the most recent 2021 ‘State of the UK Public Parks’ report, published by APSE, they are disappointed to have to repeat many of the warnings made five years ago. Funding for our parks is once again at a tipping point with the loss of parks funding in further decline from £500 million lost between 2010 and 2016 to a further £190 million in 2021. A total of £690 million over the past decade.

Whilst this report reflects on initiatives to stimulate parks, APSE finds that continued austerity measures have not been ameliorated by central government support, which has amounted to sporadic and small-scale grants to support initiatives such as ‘pocket parks’ and small renovation projects or the recent Levelling Up Fund for parks (£85,000 awarded to a number of authorities with defined deficiencies). In many cases, funding can only be accessed by costly and inefficient bidding systems, which take little account of local need. Therefore, the financing of urban parks has continued to be woefully inadequate for local authorities, who manage around 85 per cent of the UK’s urban parks.

Decline in standards This has affected how we now manage and maintain our parks and open spaces. Many of my colleagues who recently assessed several sites across England were appalled by the significant decline in standards – mowing regimes affected, derelict and on occasions, unsafe play areas, footpaths full of potholes, overflowing litter bins, buildings boarded up. The cuts have been severe, and we are led to believe that we are about to enter a recession like never before.

Pandemic Yet parks were the saving grace to many of us during the recent global pandemic, valued by communities and even publicly by politicians. So how is the sector facing up to yet another period of new austerity? Many organisations who represent the wider sector are working hard in raising the need for more funding to central government, including the Parks Management Association, Fields in Trust, Keep Britain Tidy, Green Flag Award, Grounds Management Association, and the Landscape Institute, along with others. Little funding is forthcoming, and this is unlikely to change soon. Park managers are being innovative in the way they operate. In many places, mowing regimes are being relaxed which benefits wildlife. Lancaster City Council has recently adopted a Grassland Management Strategy which others are now looking at more closely. Cost saving but also beneficial to the environment. Park managers are being more commercial in the way they operate, with businesses who operate in parks having to pay their way – cafes, fitness instructors, sports clubs, and other organisations. Car parking charges are often introduced, and visitors almost expect to pay to park their car these days. There is a greater emphasis on self-management with many councils having asset transferred such facilities as bowling greens, allotments and in some cases, pitch management and maintenance to volunteer groups or community organisations.

Technology The use of technology in parks management and operations is becoming more common. The concept of SmartParks is not new, but gradually we are seeing such introductions as Wi-Fi in parks, charging points, bins with sensors, solar powered compactors, and irrigation systems that are automated which react automatically to soil conditions and moisture. Saughton Park is Edinburgh’s first green-powered park. By combining a microhydro scheme to generate electricity and ground source heat pumps to generate heat, it utilises its natural assets in a sensitive way to decarbonise its energy demand and reduce its energy bills. Greenspace Scotland described Saughton Park as embodying the newly emerging model of a ‘low carbon park’. The development and design teams, together with technical partners, explored the potential of different green energy options. The utilisation of Ground Source Heat Pump (GSHP) technology using electricity from a microhydro scheme sited on the Water of Leith emerged as the most

The hot summer of 2022 and the subsequent drought saw many green spaces turned into scorched earth landscapes, dust bowls and much of our horticulture struggling

viable solution and was included in the masterplan to cut the park’s energy bills over the long-term. Initially, there was the potential to provide heat to other buildings around the park and connect the GSHP into an existing District Heat Network serving the local area.

Climate change Climate change is impacting on us all, and this is affecting how we also manage parks and open spaces. The hot summer of 2022 and the subsequent drought saw many green spaces turned into scorched earth landscapes, dust bowls and much of our horticulture struggling. Climate change is now with us, and we are seriously having to look at how we mange these areas going forward. This will include diversifying landscapes, changing maintenance regimes, selecting plants and trees that will tolerate these changes as well as looking at how visitors use these open spaces.

These are all significant challenges that the sector must embrace, or we lessen the value of these important spaces for our future generations. To do this, we must work together with a coordinated voice, providing the evidence, lobbying, raising our profile,

Parks Management Association

The Parks Management Association has partly been established to lobby for the need for good-quality public parks. This case has been made incessantly over the last twenty-five years and continues to be made. It has however, been set up to give a voice to parks professionals, those who know more about these places than anyone.

We work in them daily; we know our trees and our flowers, our water management and our ice-cream sales, but we also know our users; we know how vital parks are across our communities, and especially in poorer communities. These are not pay-per-entry leisure facilities or stately homes; free access to good quality parks and open spaces is as fundamental to physical and mental health as free access to health care. We are often called ‘The Natural Health Service’.

innovating and to fly the flag for parks and open spaces. L

FURTHER INFORMATION

www.parksmanagement.org.uk

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Redesigning a playground

Loughton Town Council are currently in the process of redesigning their park and playground equipment. With the location also a flood plain, careful planning was essential, as the council explains here

The Roding Valley Recreation Ground is a popular park area, located in a residential area of Loughton, Essex, and bordering the Roding Valley Meadows Nature Reserve. It also acts as a flood plain for the River Roding.

Changes needed The current play area, managed by Loughton Town Council, is tired, uninspiring, dated and worn. Geographically, the vicinity around the playground floods which leaves the area unreachable through certain times of the year, and causes issues with the surfacing of the play area. This has progressively been getting worse in recent years, with the changing weather conditions. The location, being isolated within the park, also increases the risk for the potential of anti-social behaviour.

As such, this existing playground needs to be dismantled, along with the playground surfacing, and re-instated to the natural surroundings (pre-park condition).

New location A new location has been identified for the redevelopment of the site and the Council went out to tender via the Government’s Contract Finder earlier this year in spring/ summer, requesting tenders to complete the works on the existing play area and for a new innovative, inclusive and educational playground for ages 4–14 years to be designed and installed. Contractor’s environmental policies were also an important consideration in the Council’s evaluation process.

With the new site area also prone to flooding at times, a key feature of the project is for the new play area to be constructed at the same level as the existing tennis courts and running track in the recreation ground, with drainage between the mound and playground. The mound sits adjacent to where the new playground, subject to planning requirements, will be situated. Residents’ input The Council, being keen to include residents’ and park users’ thoughts and ideas into the final design, and with the wonderful support of local schools and Loughton Library, invited both adults and children through Public Consultations to participate in helping to choose the new play equipment. A number of images were chosen as representative of the types of

play equipment available. These were listed under the following themes/headings: multiplay, swings, balance beams and trails, floor graphics, roundabouts, springy, educational/ imaginary/interactive play, see saw/rocker. Adults were asked to choose equipment they thought was essential; desirable, but not essential; and items they felt it was not important to include. Children were asked to select their favourite pieces of equipment. Suggestion boxes also captured ideas not represented within the images shown. The Council were really delighted with the amount of time and support given by everyone, and were Children were asked to select their favourite pieces of equipm ent able to include this incredibly important feedback into the final chosen design. This is an exciting time for the Council. With the tender having now been allocated to the successful contractor, Loughton Town Council are working on planning requirements. All being well, the new park area, which will be accessible throughout the year, will be constructed and open for our young residents and park users in spring 2023. L FURTHER INFORMATION

www.loughton-tc.gov.uk/ Home_2488.aspx