TWO VIEWS 2. THE PARK IN DECLINE
57. Despite the acknowledged potential of urban parks,
public confidence in them has taken a severe knock over recent
years. Figures compiled to show the condition of parks and gardens
under local authority control in the UK which were quoted to us
by the Landscape Heritage Trust and derived from Heritage Lottery
Fund figures, indicated that as many as 25 per cent of them were
in 'poor' condition and only 12 per cent in 'good' condition.[75]
While these figures seem to apply to a wide variety of urban open
spaces as well as those which can be strictly defined as 'parks',
as we noted above, they probably nevertheless give a fair indication
of the extent of the problem.
58. Past models of municipal benevolence, embodied
in high quality parks with excellent standards of horticultural
display and bustling armies of gardeners and park keepers, have
been eroded by the intensely competitive demands on leisure service
budgets. There is no doubt that, for many local authorities, park
management has been assigned to the wilderness as local government
has got to grips with the quite fundamental organisational changes
of the last decade. Though they may be remembered as places of
childhood delight, many parks have now deteriorated and become
unsightly, even dangerous, places. As Handsworth Park Association
put it, "parks have lost rank as a public good".[76]
59. As a consequence, the park ideal has been severely
fractured. Increasingly, private gardens in towns are oases of
lovingly tended mini-landscapes. In contrast, street and communal
landscaped areas often have the air of being looked after as cheaply
as possible, and too many urban parks are shunned, neglected and
vandalised. "It is extraordinary," said Mr Turner, "that
with the greatest concentration of garden lovers in the world,
London does not have a single park in which one can see the level
of garden skill which has become common in gardens open to the
public".[77]
Even some country parks are beginning to show their age. Nothing
can be a more stark picture of private affluence and public squalor.
60. Most adults brought up before the second war
have fond memories of their local park. The reminiscences of Miss
Hargreaves, a resident of Manchester, are typical. Recalling the
heyday of Errwood Park, she wrote:
"You yourself may not remember this park in
its better days, but as a youngster, I and my friends ... spent
nearly all the school holidays there ...
The baths were opened on those glorious sunny days
we seemed to have always then, and it also had changing cabins
around the baths. The park had a lovely bandstand, and circular
tiered levels around it for seating whenever a band was playing.
This was also a central meeting point for all the local churches,
'Whit walks' where everyone gathered and hymns were played and
sung.
There was a café in the park... Beyond this,
there were 16 tennis courts, where as a teenager I played tennis
three or four times a week...Two bowling greens lay behind the
tennis courts where some sunny evenings we would sit and watch
'older' people bowling....
Evenings, weekends and school holidays the park would
be busy, and parents used to take the young children to paddle
or play there. It was like a great picnic. Everyone was safe...".[78]
61. But happy memories can be easily destroyed by
returning to those parks today to see them vandalised shadows
of their former selves. The Urban Parks Forum told the inquiry
that the deterioration of public parks has been visible during
the time-span of just one generation. Many children are not able
to gain the same benefits from their local park as their parents
or even their older siblings did: "Too many 'parks' have
been reduced to little more than grass, trees and tarmac in the
quest for cheaper maintenance. The damage thus inflicted is quickly
and clearly visible; but what is now also clear is the profoundly
demoralising effect this has on park users and the surrounding
community and its economic and social life".[79]
Once put off, people are reluctant to go back. Similar points
were made, among others, by the Friends of Dunloran Park, the
Friends of Barnford Park, the Institute of Leisure and Amenity
Management, and the Chartered Institution of Water and Environmental
Management.[80]
62. Typical patterns of decline were noted by a range
of witnesses. These included the following (but were by no means
confined to them):
- "The bowling green is derelict; so, too,
are the putting greens; the tennis courts are used as a carpark;
... the Keeper's pavilion is demolished; much of the apparatus
in the children's play area has been removed ...; there are no
flower beds except at the entrance round the old Keeper's house
...; the garden for the visually impaired is derelict; there is
no cricket pitch maintained. The greenhouses are demolished. Some
of the original trees ... survive, although they have been subject
to vandalism. Some of the pathwork is in a state of disrepair".[81]
- "Lakes are closed ... or left half empty
... flower beds left unplanted ... and furniture left untouched
after vandalism ... a lack of basic maintenance signals to vandals
that this is an area abandoned by those in control and thus territory
for them".[82]
- "I live in the centre of one of the most
densely populated boroughs overlooking a park serving a neighbourhood
where most people have little or no garden. I don't use this park,
it is very dirty, feels unsafe, has groups of marauding teenagers
and a minimal amount of maintenance, just a bit of gang mowing".[83]
63. As these sorts of comments indicate, alongside
parks with good standards of care there are many neglected ones.
The memo from Sheffield City Council Leisure Service: Parks, Woodlands
& Countryside noted "a lowering of expectations"
which has led to "a spiral of decline where graffiti and
anti-social behaviour have become the dominant aspect" and
which have led to "the genuine user" avoiding them.[84]
64. The principal problems with neglected parks include
those noted above, plus: arson; overgrown shrubberies; litter;
dog fouling; the closure or abandonment of public facilities such
as cafés, refreshment booths, or covered shelters; lack
of special provision for disadvantaged groups (for example, the
physically disabled) either to the park or to facilities such
as toilets; unimaginative or uninspired children's play equipment;
broken, vandalised, poorly sited, or removed seating. They also
include the lack of "an explicit security presence"
and "the abandonment of traditional horticultural regimes
and historic layouts in favour of simplified but characterless
mown areas".[85]
And "the brutalisation of maintenance regimes" due to
compulsory competitive tendering.[86]
Factors in Decline
Cultural Changes
65. In the last 30 years or so there have been attitudinal
shifts which have encouraged the decline of the municipal park.
One is a changed perception of nature, landscape, and how they
are best appreciated; another aspect of change is that modern
ideas about what recreation consists of are different from the
Victorian, or even the 1960s, concept.
The Wild vs Tame Landscape
66. In the last decade or two, there has been a preference
for the 'natural' in all things (natural products, natural materials,
and so on). From at least 1986, when Chris Baines did a TV series
The Wild Side of Town,[87]
this has expressed itself in the move towards country parks and
a call for urban parks to be more 'natural' places, sanctuaries
for wildlife and flowers.
67. In some cases this has led, not only to a turning
away from formal parks, but to an attempt to create wildlife sanctuaries
within the urban park. In fact, some local authorities seized
on the idea, believing that it would save money. However, the
creation of 'wild' places within the 'tame' municipal park should
be approached with caution. In the first place, it needs careful
planning to ensure that the spirit of the park is not changed;
that existing users are happy with the scheme; that it does not
encourage vandalism; and that the park still feels safe and is
well cared for. Secondly, the Council must survey the park to
see what wildlife is already there and decide what can and cannot
be encouraged. Thirdly, a policy for managing a wildlife habitat
should be developed. This needs to be subtle and will require
skilled work; it may also be more expensive than a traditional
park.
68. However, the fundamental conflict between lots
of people and lots of wildlife means that in many cases such ideas
do not work. Rather than restoring the popularity of the park
by responding to new ideas, it may contribute to its decline.
Urban parks work best when the integrity of the original vision
is maintained, and they offer, in Mr Worpole's words, the prospect
of "a beautiful, ornamental, horticultural experience".[88]
Child- vs Adult-Centredness
69. The Victorian Park was essentially adult-focused
but today the hidden assumption is that parks and other recreational
facilities should be child-focused or at least child-inclusive.
They should therefore provide child-friendly educational opportunities
and entertainment.
70. The Victorian park always had an undertone of
self improvement; it was a place to learn about botany, zoology
and geology. Many parks had carefully-labelled specially-planted
trees and plants, peacocks, or grand collections of wildfowls.
The glass-houses often featured an extensive range of Mediterranean
and tropical plants, each carefully labelled. Most had at least
a lump of rock, a supposed meteorite or erratic, while some displayed
"rock formations" created out of Pulhamite, a patent
artificial rock used to mimic Portland Stone or, mixed with grit,
to create an effect similar to the millstone grit of the Pennines.[89]
On our visits we were often told that parks were still important
educational tools.
71. However, they do not necessarily offer the sort
of child-centred educational experience that parents and teachers
expect today. We saw groups of schoolchildren in only one of the
parks we visited.[90]
At Heaton Park and Wythenshaw Park, Manchester, there are well-stocked
'farms' which we were told were popular with children and school
parties.
72. The 'city farm' concept is important in this
respect. The Federation of City Farms and Community Gardens[91]
told us that city farms cater for over 3 million visitors per
year. There are currently 64 city farms and at least 450 community
gardens. Community gardens cater for 300,000 people on a regular
basis. Together with city farms, they aim to provide, among other
things: "a non-institutionalised focus for community development
work, facilities for physical activities, life long learning".[92]
The Federation of City Farms and Community Gardens argue that
public parks could be better used for things such as formal and
informal training of the unemployed and those with special needs;
educational work, from pre-school to adult; and local community
arts programmes.[93]
Relaxation vs Recreation, Entertainment, and Sport
73. The great Victorian parks were designed for rest,
contemplation, relaxation, and gentle exercisestrolling
about, admiring the vistas and horticultural displays, enjoying
for an hour or two the pleasures of the wealthy and leisured classes.
However, owing to changing social and employment patterns, it
is now probably true, as Mr Turner observed, that in their spare
time "most people ... want exercise not rest".[94]
74. Only a few of the early parks were built with
sport and entertainment in mind, though facilities such as tennis
courts, bowling greens, paddling pools and children's play equipment
have since been added to many of them. In response to the pressure
to provide exercise facilities leisure facilities have been improved
in most local authority areas, but not necessarily in the park.
Most of them have been housed under one roof in purpose-built
(indoor) leisure-centres which now provide the most up-to-date
facilities for swimming, racket sports, and fitness training.
75. Few such centres meet their full cost; several
witnesses believed that the parks budget was reduced because of
the cost of maintaining the leisure centres.[95]
Among the important advantages that indoor leisure centres have
over parks is that they are not weather-dependent and the public
see them as 'safe' compared to the 'dangerous' municipal park.
76. The consequence of these cultural shifts is,
as Mr Worpole said, that "when the ecologist and the environmentalists
come along and the sports lobby come along, the parks profession
... cannot clearly say what is the key purpose of the urban park".[96]
The lack of reliable information about park-extent and park-usage,
which we noted earlier, is an exacerbating factor. Advocacy for
parks is an uphill struggle in the increasingly stiff competition
for resources, especially as the provision and maintenance of
urban parks are not statutory services for local authorities.
Whereas other recreational facilities, for example indoor leisure
centres, are able to demonstrate that they are needed and affordablethat
they attract x users and y incomethere are no comparable
figures which can show that parks are worth maintaining.
77. We believe that municipal parks should retain
their integrity and historic character. However, if they are to
have an exciting future larger parks should seek to regain their
function as places for entertainment and formal and informal games.
City farms and wildlife areas also have an important role to play
in our towns, especially in the educational sphere. They need
to be looked after and developed alongside municipal parks.
Under-funding
78. Almost all of those submitting written evidence,
and most of the oral witnesses too, believed that between 1970
and today local authority expenditure on parks had been cut.[97]
We made energetic attempts to discover whether this was actually
the case, but did not have much success in obtaining authoritative
figures. Expenditure on parks varies from authority to authority,
as Newham Leisure services pointed out: "Expenditure needs
will obviously vary between authorities with various factors influencing
this, i.e., current condition; ability to invest; investment record;
efficiency and effectiveness of resource/asset management; local
economy; demographics; location, etc".[98]
79. Changing departmental responsibilities within
local authorities exacerbate the problem of obtaining accurate
figures for parks expenditure.[99]
In 1970 an authority would have had a Parks Department or Parks
and Ground Maintenance Department. Their functions were later
taken into the remit of 'Parks and Recreation' Departments, then
into 'Leisure Services', and sometimes today 'Education and Leisure
Services'.
80. It would have been helpful to be able to turn
to the Audit Commission or the Chartered Institute of Public Finance
and Accountancy (CIPFA) for accurate figures to show expenditure
on parks over a 20 or 30 year period. The figures that are available,
however, are at best unreliable, at worst a sad reflection on
professional standards.
81. The Government suggest that a total of £638m
in the equivalent of today's prices[100]
was spent on parks in the year 1990/91, and this had now fallen
to £538m. These figures, of course, can mask considerable
local variation. There is regular evidence that local councils
made a percentage cut in parks budgets in order to minimise rate
increases, to reach poll tax levels, or to avoid community charge
capping. However, some of these cuts were quietly restored in
following years.
82. Manchester City Council gave us figures which
indicated that their budget in 1974 was £1,817,911 (the equivalent
of £12,560,000 in today's prices) and was now £7,528,730.
In oral evidence, Stockport MBC told us that: "since 1988
grounds maintenance in parks has lost £1million out of its
budget. As a proportion that is about a quarter".[101]
In January 1995 Horticultural Week carried a report by
Bill Swann which estimated that £80m less per year had been
spent on parks since compulsory competitive tendering had been
introduced.[102]
83. Much of the evidence points, not to direct cuts,
but rather to resources having to be spread very thin. In most
local authority areas, the last 30 years has seen a significant
increase in the amount of land having to be maintained without
additional resources. The creation of landscaped spaces in housing
developments and grass verges along roadsides and by-passes, the
tidying up of waste ground, the planting of flowers and shrubs
to mellow traffic-calming schemes and so on, are excellent developments
but they have caused strain on already stretched budgets.
84. Compulsory Competitive Tendering is also a factor
in that it has diverted the efforts of officers from maintenance
work itself into writing specifications for maintenance work.
Moreover, maintenance tenders lend themselves best to large-scale
specific tasks such as grass cutting and weed killing edges but
are not suitable for dealing with small items of maintenance and
daily gardening care. The Landscape Heritage Trust told us that
CIPFA estimates that 77 per cent of expenditure is allocated to
grounds maintenance managed under Compulsory Competitive Tendering.
The Trust notes that "the majority of this will be for the
cutting of grass, mainly for sporting activities".[103]
85. This may be one of the reasons for the large
expanses of mowed grass and dearth of flowerbeds which were complained
of by many witnesses and which give a park the overall appearance
of being unloved. The fact that once the contractors have won
the contract, they do not necessarily have any loyalty to a particular
park exacerbates this effect.[104]
The Institute of Historic Building Conservation also made the
point that Compulsory Competitive Tendering dramatically reduced
the training of Council officers and employees on any contracted
service.[105]
86. Under-funding has cumulative effects, often precipitating
a spiral of decline. Lack of funds leads to dereliction, and dereliction
causes further expense; lack of funds prevents the further dereliction
being promptly and appropriately attended to, and even more dereliction
results. Repairs are not carried out quickly and effectively,
so later they have to be carried out expensively or inappropriately.
The ultimate effect of this too-little too-late maintenance is
that repair costs rise well beyond what the already straightened
budget can allow.
87. The rot can set in very quickly and be out of
control in a very short time. The Institute of Historic Building
Conservation noted how evidence of shabbiness and other problems
of neglect:
"deters regular users of the parks who perceive
them as untidy, unwelcoming, uninteresting or threatening. Declining
patronage of parks is likely in turn to stimulate its own spiral
of decline in which local authorities see no incentive to invest
thus exacerbating the problem".[106]
88. This problem particularly affects statuary, ornamental
buildings and water bodies. The Garden History Society told us
that the "lack of maintenance of buildings and waterbodies
... leads to acute problems of high-cost repairs which remain
entirely beyond the ability of most local authorities to address".[107]
89. A large number of historic parks were set out
with grand designs dominated by parades lined with statues, urns,
stone basins, and fountains; or they featured ornamental buildings
intended to be glimpsed at the end of a long vista. Many, or most,
also had functional buildings: cafés, boat houses, green
houses, or hot houses, often ornately designed.
90. Features such as these have suffered particularly
badly from decay, neglect, vandalism, and inappropriate repair.
They were not often built to last. Certainly they were not designed
to stand up to years of being fouled by birds; they were not resistant
to weathering or lichen, nor a century or more of winter frost
and summer sun. The pagodas, palm houses, and other ornamental
buildings were designed in an age when labour was cheap, and a
great variety of materials was available. It is difficult today
to match the materials and sometimes the original design has been
lost. Sensitive repair has consequently been rendered difficult
and expensive, if not impossible. Moreover, these features have
sometimes been deemed irrelevant to the function of a modern park.
91. If historic parks are to be restored successfully,
however, these artifacts need to be included in the restoration
plans. Techniques are available, and have been successfully used
on historic
buildings and statuary in private gardens. The same
techniques could be brought to bear on the problem of park ornaments
and ornamental buildings if advice and expertise was available.
92. Urgent action is needed to find effective
ways of stopping the loss and neglect of park ornaments and ornamental
buildings.
Safety Fears
93. In the past, parks were usually seen as safe
places. Though a few pickpockets might have been at work during
crowded weekends, and there might have been a little crime at
night in a park that was not properly secured, no-one would have
hesitated about going there during normal hours. The reason was
simple. Parks were places where a lot of people congregated, where
there were gardeners working and park keepers to keep order. So
danger-free were they perceived to be that in most towns and cities
the police only went there at the Park Keeper's request or if
they were investigating a specific crime. The situation is different
now.
94. As the Chartered Institution of Water and Environmental
Management told us:
"A declining infrastructure of park buildings,
fences, paths, etc, ... equates to institutional neglect ... There
is now a perception that public parks are dangerous places to
be in at certain times of day or night. Such neglect would not
be tolerated in a municipal library or other public building".[108]
95. Many parks were designed so that staff could
see what was going on. Since then, however, many of the shrubs
(particularly rhododendrons) which were previously kept at waist
height, have grown into dark tree-like clumps. Though they may
be a mass of colour for 3 weeks in the year, for the rest of the
time they are often just dark vaulting sprawling over paths. Secondly,
trees planted in the 1960s enthusiasm for foliage broke up the
open vistas of Victorian parks, and now create areas that people
feel uneasy in. This effect was explained to us when we visited
Heaton Park in Manchester.
96. Mr Worpole thought that fears about safety in
parks "is part of a wider fear that we can no longer manage
safety and well being in public spaces," and asked: "Is
the 'keeper-less park', along with the unstaffed railway station,
the poorly-lit underground car park, the unsupervised playground,
and the deserted town centre at night, going to become another
ghost zone of modern Britain?"[109]
We find this a very relevant question.
97. Making parks safe, and making them feel safe,
must be a priority for local authorities. Plans for park safety
should be included in all local authority Crime and Disorder Strategies.[110]
Staffing
98. Staffing is obviously a central issue, not only
for safety matters such as those raised above, but also for the
general appearance of a park. As far as safety is concerned, one
recurring theme of the evidence was the detrimental effect of
'the keeperless park'. As far as park appearance is concerned,
staff career opportunities and status, education and training
were all deemed to be vital. In the paragraphs below we shall
first discuss the role of park keepers, followed by staff pay,
training and related matters, as they were presented and argued
in written and oral evidence to the Committee.
The Demise of the Park Keeper
99. Most large Victorian parks were built with accommodation
for a Park Superintendent, and/or park keepers. In many authorities
up until the late 1960s the Director of Parks often had a tied
cottage in the largest park. Increasingly this accommodation has
been sold off, demolished, or become the prey of vandals. Most
of it was designed in the Victorian age and is unsuitable for
20th-century living without extensive and expensive modernisation.
Also tax relief on mortgages has encouraged home ownership but
discouraged people from renting properties, especially if the
property is tied to the job. So living in the park became a rarity.
100. Meanwhile, the number of park keepers was being
drastically reduced. A park that used to have a head park keeper
and 4 or 5 park keepers now has only one or two. Citing the Association
of Direct Labour Organisations Survey of 1996, Dr Conway noted
that: "Safety in parks was in the past secured by the presence
of park keepers and superintendents and the swearing in of park
police. By 1996 only a third of parks had dedicated park staff,
yet 90 per cent of local authorities experienced vandalism".[111]
As job opportunities were reduced it became more difficult to
recruit young park keepers and local youths began to see the (often
elderly) 'Parky' as impotent and laughable.
101. Consequently, some councils decided to try to
find other ways of looking after park security. The idea of park
rangers was tried in some parks in the belief that the best approach
to security was to educate youths into using parks constructively.
Unfortunately, in many other parks the park keeper was replaced
by a security guard who made the circuit of the park from time
to time, with or without a dog. It must be said that this has
not been a success. The Institute of Historic Building Conservation
cited "the lack of ... comfort derived from the presence
of on site personnel" as one of "the principal visible
problems in modern urban parks".[112]
102. Mr Worpole told us that the parks in his study
could not be made safe by "two men in a rundown vehicle and
an alsatian dog driving through everyday at 4 o'clock. The kids
went at five to four and came back at five past four and carried
on burning".[113]
This seems to be the general experience. Rt Hon. Richard Caborn,
Minister for Regional Regeneration and Planning, for example,
said in his oral evidence: "In my own City of Sheffield,
the quality of parks has gone down from when I was a kid, there
is no doubt about that; the flower-beds are not there, the cleanliness
of it, the policing of it, the park wardens are not there,
as they were before, they are not the quality that they were"
[our italics].[114]
Salaries, Status, Career Opportunities and Training
in Decline
103. A lack both of adequate career structure and
of staff training are two of the principal reasons that witnesses
consistently put forward to explain why, as the Minister observed,
park staff are not, as Mr Newton of Turfsoil Ltd put it, "the
quality that they were".[115]
104. The Heritage Lottery Fund agreed that the lack
of funds for repair and maintenance is "compounded by a general
lack of skills and experience within local authorities themselves.
Parks departments, in most areas, had been comprehensively dismantled
and park management had been devolved into a set of ground maintenance
tasks to be carried out by contractors".[116]
The Local Government Association told us that "a reduction
in horticultural training and therefore skill levels further hastened
the decline".[117]
105. Mr Tim Smit, Chair of the Landscape Heritage
Trust Steering Group, had devastating criticisms to make of the
career status and opportunities in British park management. In
his oral evidence, he said:
"In my native country of Holland being a horticulturist
or a botanist is a profession like being an accountant or a lawyer
or a doctor and generally regarded as superior to the first two.
In this country there is a tradition now where the thickest son
of the thickest son goes into horticulture. If you go round any
horticulture college today there is this terrible aura of despair.
There is no management going on, there is no hope. I am not exaggerating,
believe me".[118]
Similarly, Dr Stuart Harding, Policy Advisor Historic
Landscape at the Heritage Lottery Fund, spoke of "the depth
and extent of decline that has happened in this field".[119]
106. In answer to a question about how much a head
gardener with the National Trust might expect to earn, Mr Smit
told us:
"At a place like Stourhead you could perhaps
earn £23,000 but generally it is between £15,000 and
£17,000. That is at the height of your profession. It is
a disgrace for something which gives so much pleasure to so many
people that requires such a range of skills".[120]
107. It is probably the case that many people who
were trained in horticulture and management in the last 30 years
and who might have gone into municipal parks have taken their
skills elsewhere. There has been a substantial growth in private
gardens open to the public, and National Trust properties have
increasingly made a feature of their gardens. There has also been
a massive growth in the number of garden centres and private landscaping
businesses. It may well be that managing municipal parks is not
as attractive as many of these sorts of jobs.
108. Early retirement and the down-grading of the
role of Director of Parks has also caused many able people to
be lost to municipal parks. Local authority reorganisation in
1974 meant that some landscape planners moved out of Parks into
Architecture and Planning Departments, breaking the links between
design and continued execution and maintenance of landscaped areas.
109. Funds and opportunities for staff training have
been equally restricted. Mr Smit told us that figures from CIPFA
show that on average in UK parks as a whole only 1 per cent is
allocated to staff education and training support.[121]
We cannot believe that figures for urban parks are any better
than those for parks as a whole. Dr Harding told us that
"the problem is that, with the dismantling of
parks departments, all the horticultural training has gone, and
so that is another aspect, that we have been keen to encourage
local authorities to rebuild, to rebuild training within the programme
of restoring the park. But it is an awesome task".[122]
110. The tried and trusted methods of taking on 15-year-olds
as apprentices has virtually stopped over the last 30 years,[123]
though National Vocational Qualifications (NVQs) might be an alternative,
according to Mr J Newton, representing Turfsoil Ltd, especially
if the system was simplified:
"We think they would suit our sector very well.
Up until now, actually putting a member of one's company through
an NVQ has been a very bureaucratic and expensive procedure. We
pioneered NVQs with the British Landscape Training Organisation
when it was set up ... After about six months, we had to give
them back and say 'we cannot operate the system you are telling
us we have to operate'. These were rules laid down from above,
very bureaucratic and long winded".[124]
His company had benefited from employees who had
gained their qualifications in an earlier era and were now able
to pass on those skills to trainees working alongside them.[125]
111. On the horticultural side, it should be noted
in passing that some of the more dynamic people running parks
whom we met on our site-visits came from leisure backgrounds.
They brought very obvious skills to the job, but did not necessarily
understand the horticultural or "passive enjoyment"
side of parks. This would not matter, of course, were there staff
with a horticultural background to act as a balance. But when
the whole enterprise is being run on a shoestring, this does not
necessarily happen.
112. We met some very competent staff during our
site-visits and we heard also from enthusiastic and well-qualified
witnesses. There appear, too, to be some very able consultants
in the field who might, in an earlier age, have been Directors
of Parks in very large authorities. We also note that schemes
approved for lottery funding lay down as a condition that there
are well-qualified staff to carry out the work. Despite the best
efforts of these dedicated people, however, standards will continue
to slide unless and until energetic steps are taken to raise the
status of the profession, to employ sufficient staff, and to train
them properly.
113. If the decline of parks is to be arrested
and reversed it is essential that there should be sufficient high
quality staff. We believe this is an area the Local Government
Association ought to be looking at urgently, and which ultimately
ought to be dealt with by a National Agency.
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Q 46 Back
89
See P. Doyle and J.E. Robinson "The Victorian 'Geological
Illustrations' of Crystal Palace Park". Proceedings of
the Geologists' Association 104 (1993):181-194 Back
90
See annex to the report Back
91
TCP 42 Back
92
TCP 42 Ev p. 97 Back
93
TCP 42 Ev p. 98 - Stockport MBC also recommended that community
arts and sculpture parks should find a home in the municipal park
(TCP 34 Ev p. 78) Back
94
TCP 35, Ev p. 81 Back
95 Q45,
TCP 41 Ev p. 95; TCP 59 Back
96
Q 46 Back
97
Q 81 Councillor Heintiz; TCP 13; TCP 9; TCP 13 Ev p. 29; TCP 16
Ev p. 37; TCP 32 Ev p. 70; TCP 49 Ev p. 125 Back
98
TCP 16 Ev p. 37 Back
99
TCP 7 Ev p. 13 para 3.1 Back
100
In QQ 659& 660, the Minister quoted figures taken from Local
Government Financial Statistics, England. These have been converted
to current prices using the GDP deflator sourced from ONS database,
FSBR, March 1999 Back
101
Q 291 Back
102
Horticultural Week 19 January 1995, pp. 24-30 Back
103
TCP 24 Ev p. 57 Back
104
TCP 33 Ev p. 72 Back
105
TCP 47 Ev p. 115 Back
106
TCP 47 Ev p. 115 Back
107
TCP 49 Ev p. 123 Back
108
TCP 8, Ev p. 17 Back
109
TCP 46 Ev p. 111 Back
110
As required by Crime and Disorder Act 1998 Back
111
TCP 36 Ev p. 84 Back
112
TCP 47 Ev p. 115 Back
113
Q l 57 Back
114
Q 643 Back
115
TCP 9 Back
116
TCP 54 Ev p. 138 para 3.4 Back
117
TCP 48 Ev p. 120 para 6.6 Back
118
Q 14 Back
119
Q 513 Back
120
Q 36 - see also QQ 34&35 Back
121
TCP 24 Ev p. 57 Back
122
Q 513 Back
123
TCP 7 Ev p. 13 para 3.2 (vi) Back
124
Q 337 Back
125
Q 339 Back
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