The Royal Parks The Royal Annual ReportAnnual Accounts 2004-05 and The Royal Parks The Old Police House Hyde Park London W2 2UH Telephone:+44 (0)20 7298 2000 www.royalparks.org.uk A day in the Parks A day in the Parks A day RECYCLABLE CONTAINS MATERIAL 100% RECYCLED MATERIAL Annual Report and Accounts 2004-05 07:43 09:20 11:09 13:16 15:45 16:12 17:45 20.15 22:38 Bushy ParkBushy The Green Park Greenwich Park Hyde Park Kensington Gardens Park & PrimroseThe Regent’s Hill Richmond Park Park St James’s & Brompton Cemetery 2004-05 Chief Executive’s foreword 2 Horticulture 4 Annual Report and Accounts Access and engagement 7 A day in the Parks Health and sport 11 Wildlife 15 Tourism,recreation and relaxation 19 The Royal Parks Foundation and fundraising 23 Support services 26 The Royal Parks is an Executive Agency of the Department Sustainability 29 for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS). History and architecture 32 Presented to the House of Commons pursuant to section 7 of Managing The Royal Parks 36 The Government Resources & Accounts Act 2000. Ordered by Performance against key targets 37 the House of Commons to be printed on the 20 July 2005. A look ahead 42 London:The Stationery Office Ltd Accounts 43 237, £12 It is a pleasure to introduce my first start of this financial year but it would Annual Report of The Royal Parks.The be unfair not to reflect on them in this Royal Parks became an Executive Agency Annual Report since the vast majority in 1993, although the parks themselves of the work was completed last year. are somewhat older; Greenwich Park is I particularly wish to highlight the Hub at the eldest, established in 1433 and The The Regent’s Park, which was opened by Regent’s Park is the youngest, barely 196 TRH The Prince of Wales and The years old.The formal paths of Kensington Duchess of Cornwall on 27 April 2005. Gardens were laid out in 1728 and there During the year we undertook customer are some trees in Richmond Park that research on four of the eight parks: are estimated to have been there for Greenwich, Bushy, St. James’s and Green. more than 800 years.The stewardship of The overall satisfaction rating and esteem The Royal Parks is, therefore, not a varied between 93% and 95%.This gives transitory or short-term responsibility, but an indication of the affection in which a chance to conserve and enhance some users hold the parks. of the most precious spaces in London. However, over the year the Agency During last year William Weston stood became caught up with one issue:The down as Chief Executive and Bernadette Diana, Princess of Wales Memorial Kenny took over as interim Chief Fountain. I am delighted that the fountain Executive. I only took up post in May of was re-opened to the public at the end this year, so the successes reported here of my first week as Chief Executive, since are their successes. I would like to thank when over 200,000 members of the them for the contribution that they have public have visited it. I hope that the both made to the organisation. previous difficulties with this project are More than any other Executive Agency, now behind us and that many more The Royal Parks will be judged on how it visitors will have the opportunity to looks and feels.The quality of the come to Hyde Park and enjoy a personal horticulture and the safety of park users remembrance of the Princess. is, therefore, of paramount importance, I also hope that the Agency can now as is ensuring that we protect the move forward and continue to build on bio-diversity of the parks and provide a the excellence and diversity of its parks. sustainable future for them.This means My aim is that The Royal Parks excite and protecting our wild areas, investing in our delight visitors so much that they cannot infrastructure and managing events to wait to return. foreword Chief Executive’s minimise their impact on the landscape, ecology and visitors. This report sets out some of the progress that has been made in these areas over the last year. It also highlights the significant work that has been undertaken in terms of conservation, education and sport. A number of large Mark Camley projects were not completed until the Chief Executive,The Royal Parks The quality of horticulture, the safety of park users, protecting biodiversity and investing in our infrastructure is of vital importance to The Royal Parks. The Royal Parks Annual Report & Accounts 04-05 3 The new sports pitches in The Regent’s Park have been surrounded with over 11 hectares (27 acres) of long grass that will be managed as meadow with plenty of wildflowers. work to restore the continues Case study: recreating Baroque International prestige And there will be plenty of wildflowers: gardens in Greenwich The Royal Parks offer a host of we are planting 10,000, including Cuckoo Greenwich is the oldest of The Royal horticultural treasures and every year we Flower (Cardamine pratensis) and Parks, dating back to the 15th Century. work hard to maintain, enhance and Meadow Cranesbill (Geranium pratense) The original gardens, laid out in the protect the many natural delights of the in 12 swathes around the southern and GREENWICH PARK 1660’s, were inspired by the designs of Parks.We recruited a Landscape Officer eastern edges of the pitches.They will be original landscape designs of the 1660’s, with around 400 trees planted since 1999 In 07:43 André le Nôtre, gardener to Louis XIV, this year to bring specialist skills and planted in differing combinations to suit who most famously designed the services to The Royal Parks’ in-house the different conditions and will provide a gardens at the Palace of Versailles. team.We also appointed a new external focus from which the flowers can spread. Landscape Assessor, to replace Doug The project to restore these beautiful The turf into which the flowers are Stacey who retired in 2004. gardens, which means recreating or planted will also be sown with a ‘nurse repairing many avenues of trees, has We continued to develop our tree crop’ of wildflowers, including the been progressing steadily since 1999.We management in 2004/5 and appointed Common Meadow Buttercup (Ranunculus are also restoring ‘The Rounds’, the our first Arboricultural Officer.We also acris) and Ribwort Plantain (Plantago three concentric circles of trees that reviewed all our tree maintenance and lanceolata). radiate from the Blackheath entrance to management contracts to ensure the A total of 216 trees have also been the Park.Already 400 trees have been Parks’ trees continue to get the highest planted or relocated around the edges of planted, including Horse Chestnut, standards of care. the meadows. Moving certain trees Sweet Chestnut, Lime and Oak. allowed the new pitches to be laid out in Much has changed since the 1660’s, of one central area, rather than scattered Reviving Regent’s Park course, including road layouts and new throughout the Park.The newly planted The redevelopment of the Regent’s Park buildings such as the 1950’s sports trees are Horse Chestnut (Aesculus sports pitches has allowed us to enhance pavilion.These developments often cut hippocastanum), Silver Birch (Betula the horticulture and biodiversity of the across the original designs, so progress pendula), Ash (Fraxinus excelsior), Holm surrounding parkland.The new pitches can often only be made as opportunities Oak (Quercus ilex), English Oak (Quercus have been surrounded with over 11 Horticulture – such as rebuilding ageing structures – robur), Red Oak (Quercus rubra), Small hectares of long grass, which we will arise.That means work on this Leaved Lime (Tilia cordata), Caucasian manage as meadow and which we hope important project is likely to continue Lime (Tilia euchlora) and Weeping Silver will come to support a wide diversity of for another 15 to 20 years. Lime (Tilia tomentosa ‘Chelsea Sentinel’). nectar-bearing plants. The majority of the trees are native For this to happen, nutrient levels in the species and English Oaks are the most soil need to drop and we will be helping numerous species.These will take around this by removing all the cuttings after the 200 years to mature but the Ash, Red annual mow. As the nutrients fall, we will Oak and Birch will grow much more quickly. cut on a two-year cycle to ensure a consistently good proportion of the long grasses needed by over-wintering invertebrates.We are also sowing Yellow- rattle (Rhinanthus minor) among the long grass.This semi-parasitic plant will help keep the grass in check, creating more room for other wildflowers. The Royal Parks Annual Report & Accounts 04-05 5 Landscape and trees in Bushy Park The number of dead trees in the Park is New trees in Kensington Gardens Much of the work at Bushy this year has testament to recent extremes of climate, We planted 65 trees in Kensington in the focused on the Restoration Project, which with surface-rooting species like Beech winter, including many specimen trees, is progressing well.We have continued and Birch particularly badly hit.We have some replacement avenue trees and Bushy’s standards of maintenance this also been visited by the Horse Chestnut three Elm trees grown especially by The year, as well as delivering on the targets Leaf Miner.This pest proved a widespread Royal Parks for their disease resistance.To set by ISO 14001, an international problem across south and west London minimise vandalism, all the new trees are standard for environmental management.