COUNCILLORS have called for the management of city parks to be passed on to community groups to secure the future of our green spaces.

Brighton and Hove City Council’s Conservative group has urged the local authority to follow the example of Worthing and Adur Councils.

Council bosses expect to save £750,000 during the next ten years by giving the community a mandate to work alongside them in managing their parks.

The plea has come as more of the county’s green spaces have been awarded the prestigious Green Flag status.

The latest group of winners was announced today by the Keep Britain Tidy campaign, with 25 parks in Sussex identified as some of the best in the country.

Brighton and Hove’s seven Green Flag parks all managed to maintain their status.

They are The Level, St Ann’s Well Gardens, Hove Park, Easthill Park, Stoneham Park, Kipling Gardens and Preston Park.

Councillor Gill Mitchell, chairwoman of the council’s environment and sustainability committee, said: “We are thrilled to hear that we’ve been awarded seven Green Flags this year and this builds on the achievements of previous council administrations.

“We have a great track record and the awards are testament to the dedication of staff and volunteers.”

Worthing and Eastbourne both received new Green Flag awards, with Field Place for the former and Hampden Park for the latter.

Muster Green in Haywards Heath was also one of the county’s new Green Flag parks after a town council campaign to get the green space recognised.

But with council budgets being cut across the country, there are questions over how best to maintain community parks in the future. Brighton and Hove City Council had to cut £300,000 from the parks budget this year, with the local authority forced to make £77 million in savings across departments during the next four years.

According to the council, it costs £20,000 a day to maintain the city’s parks and open spaces.

Conservative councillors said a model being rolled out by Adur and Worthing Councils should be considered.

The local authorities have given organisations such as ‘friends of’ groups and sports teams a mandate to work with the council in managing green spaces.

It is estimated that the move will save more than £750,000 in the next ten years.

Daniel Humphries, leader of Worthing Borough Council, said: “It is something we are massively excited about.

“I think Worthing is leading the march and I think it is a model that, once we have it done, is going to be something everyone is going to be interested in.”

Councillor Geoffrey Theobald, leader of the Conservative opposition in Brighton and Hove, said his party supported “increasing the role of friends groups, giving them direct control of how money for their park is spent”.

He added that while the work of the council’s parks team was “first class”, more could be done by working with ‘friends of’ groups.

However, the Labour administration said the move is not something it is considering.

Coun Mitchell said: “We do have a large number of friends groups who do a great job helping us manage the parks and open spaces.

“If we were going to go down that route we would have to be very mindful of the need to supply on-going support to those groups and we would have to make sure there was the capacity within the group to take this on.”

TAKING CONTROL OF OUR COMMUNITY SPACES

Alan Marchant, operations director of The Conservation Volunteers in the South of England, was quick to say that the “potential benefits to the community are huge and far more significant than any financial gains”.

Mr Marchant was talking about the plan for Adur and Worthing councils to hand over management and maintenance of their parks to community groups.

The Conservation Volunteers are a team which will work closely with local authorities to help prepare and support community groups that want to take on the ambitious task of working with councils to manage their favourite green spaces.

He said: “Our priority is to create better-connected communities, where local people know what is going on around them, where they can learn new skills and play an active role and give something back to society. 

“We want to create healthier, happier communities by reducing isolation and inactivity, increasing inclusion and improving people’s health, fitness and general well-being.”

Worthing and Adur’s proposal was announced last year when they won £100,000 in government funding from the Transformation Challenge Awards.

Andy Edwards, the councils’ head of environment, said: “Through the scheme, we will be working much more closely with those members of our communities who have the skills and passions to make the most of our substantial natural assets. 

“This will not only continually improve our green spaces but will also go some way to giving local community groups the opportunity to get involved with significant projects – an initiative which will bring substantial social and health benefits with it.”

With the £100,000, the council is laying the groundwork to work with community groups to get them involved in the maintenance of the parks.

Councillor Daniel Humphries, leader of Worthing Borough Council, said the plans were great news for the town.

He said it was something the council hoped to lead the way on and added that it had already received “lots of interest” from community groups about working in partnership.

Councillor Clive Roberts, executive member for the environment at the council, said the local authority needed to accepted it must “work smarter” to keep up the town’s high standards. He added that the council was looking for groups such as sports clubs and voluntary organisations to take on the task of managing parks.

The plan is not unique to Worthing, though, as elsewhere in the country other community groups have already started to take control of their community spaces.

Nesta, a charity, has been running its Rethinking Parks programme based on a report by landscape architect Peter Neal – which helped in the development of the 2012 Olympic park.

Mr Neal has argued for a need to rethink the way public parks are managed following cuts to government subsidies. 

He said: “While the past decade has seen significant improvements in the quality of many parks in the UK, it is clear there is now an urgent need to establish new business models and promote radical innovation in how parks are supported and sustained in the future.

“For many this will be a formidable challenge, but this process offers enormous potential to develop new models and offer communities and local organisations the opportunity to increasingly take control of neighbourhood assets, protect and improve their distinctive parks and generate additional income and resources from more sustainable and long–term sources. 

“This is an opportunity not to simply maintain the status quo and bridge a growing funding gap, but provides the impetus to rethink and redesign in an ecologically and financially sustainable way, parks and parks services that can be better equipped, more attractive and of higher quality in the future.”

Nesta has been working with Burnley Borough Council to develop and test the cost-saving measures, while improving biodiversity and encouraging community involvement. 

It helped to launch the council’s Volunteer In Parks programme, which encourages people to care for their local green spaces. It is run in conjunction with social enterprise Newground and permaculture project Offshoots. As part of the scheme, measures such as earning money through the sale of wildflower crops and wood chippings for fuel are being looked at.

SUSSEX'S GREEN FLAG PARKS

Bognor – Hotham Park
Bognor – Marine Park Gardens
Brighton and Hove – Easthill Park
Brighton and Hove – Hove Park
Brighton and Hove – Kipling Gardens
Brighton and Hove – Preston Park
Brighton and Hove – St Ann’s Well Gardens
Brighton and Hove – Stoneham Park
Brighton and Hove – The Level
Crawley – Buchan Country Park
Crawley – Goffs Park
Crawley – The Memorial Gardens
Crawley – Tilgate Park
Eastbourne – Hampden Park
Eastbourne – Princes Park
Hastings – Alexandra Park
Hastings – Hastings Country Park
Hastings – St Leonards Park
Haywards heath – Beech Hurst Gardens
Haywards Heath – Muster Green
Lewes – Lewes Railway Land Local Nature Reserve
Littlehampton – Mewsbrook Park
Newhaven – Castle Hill Newhaven Local Nature Reserve
Worthing – Field Place
Worthing – Highdown Gardens