Parks and Countryside

The Strategic Parks Initiative

The Strategic Parks Initiative was adopted by Members on 24 October 2006 (Executive Minute 76).

Our Parks and Green Spaces Strategy, which was adopted by the Council on 27 May 2003 (Executive Minute 12) and has subsequently been recognised as national best practice, informs us of the need to carry out a programme of major improvements to our parks and green spaces.

The strategy acknowledges that this will take a long time and cost a lot of money:

Money to consult upon, design and deliver the improvements, i.e. capital expenditure, and
Money to look after the improvements, i.e. revenue

In other words it will cost more revenue money than it currently does to look after the parks once they have been improved.

The Strategic Parks Initiative is one of the ways the Council has identified to afford these increased ongoing maintenance costs.

It is also a response to views expressed by residents in a number of resident satisfaction surveys that their priorities for parks are:

A visible staff presence in the park to help people to feel safer
Improved facilities so there is a better range of things to do as well as refreshments and toilets
Staying longer/visiting more often, i.e. more events, activities and opportunities for people to get involved in parks through volunteering, Friends Groups and healthy walks etc.

In essence the Strategic Parks Initiative is a restructuring of the Council's park maintenance regimes and park revenue budgets to accommodate and support the capital investments being delivered throughout the borough through the Parks and Green Spaces Strategy.

The Strategic Parks Initiative advocates concentrating more of the current maintenance budget on 8 strategic parks to ensure that across the borough and within a short walk from every borough resident is a high quality park where their 3 priorities for parks will be met.

As the improved management and maintenance of the 8 strategic parks is linked to the progress of the Parks and Green Spaces Strategy in restoring those parks, the improvements will be introduced as part of a phased approach, which will simultaneously review and re-prioritise management and maintenance regimes in the non-strategic parks.

The 8 strategic parks are:

Barking Park is the flagship park within the Parks and Green Spaces Strategy and is also the first park within the borough where the Strategic Parks Initiative is becoming a reality.

Due to the success of the Council's £3.5 million bid to the Heritage Lottery Fund under its Public Parks Initiative, we have so far created the following posts all of which are 100% focused on Barking Park.

The Barking Park Heritage Lottery Fund Project Manager, Mike Levett, has been in post since March 2007 and is responsible for coordinating and delivering the Heritage Lottery Fund restoration and improvement project along with other capital improvement contracts within Barking Park.

The Education and Outreach Ranger, Lydia Wilde, has been in post since September 2007 and is the main point of contact for community consultation with responsibility for the promotion, and development of Barking Park for events, activities informal recreation, nature conservation and environmental education.

The Assistant Education and Outreach Ranger, Sarah Austin, has been in post since January 2008 and provides supports the above post.

We are currently recruiting to a Barking Park Manager post who will be responsible for coordinating all the above roles as well as volunteers, Friends, a number of parks concessions and leaseholders to ensure that the 10 year management and maintenance plan is delivered.

We also hope to recruit 2 part-time Play Workers specifically for Barking Park.

In addition to this there are 3 full-time gardeners at the site.

Other parks:

We are currently writing job descriptions for 3 new Community Ranger posts who will provide a presence in the park at Greatfields Park, Old Dagenham Park and Valence Park. A significant element of the work of these Community Rangers will be play development.

Further developments within the Parks and Green Spaces Strategy and the Strategic Parks Initiative will be published on this web page as they happen.

Parks and Countryside

The Strategic Parks Initiative

The 8 strategic parks are:

Other parks:

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