Scrutiny Review: Parks A Review by the Environment and Community Safety Scrutiny Panel 2017/18 Panel Membership Cllr Tim Gallagher (Chair) Cllr Barbara Blake Cllr Bob Hare Cllr Clive Carter Cllr Makbule Gunes Cllr Anne Stennett Mr I Sygrave (Co-opted Member) Support Officer: Robert Mack, Principal Scrutiny Support Officer
[email protected] 0208 489 2921 Page 1 of 30 CHAIR’S FOREWORD Haringey‟s parks are much loved facilities that provide a wide range of benefits for the community. There have been various attempts to quantify these benefits, but parks also contribute to life in the borough in ways that are not always quantifiable, in relation to areas such as health, education, social cohesion and place-making. Despite this, there has historically been a lack of recognition of the wide-ranging benefits that parks provide and a tendency to take them for granted. This has led to them being regarded as a low priority for funding and something of a financial liability. Parks have suffered disproportionately from budget cuts. The adverse impact of these has been felt gradually but there are now signs that long-term harm is being done to our parks. Although the borough‟s Parks Service are highly-regarded, it has been widely acknowledged during this review that it is chronically underfunded, with staff numbers too low and maintenance levels insufficient to keep parks at the standards residents expect. The principal cause of this is, of course, the cuts to council funding from central government. However, as a panel we have tried to explore ways of increasing funding within the current constraints.