Agenda Item No. 10

Dudley MBC Cabinet Meeting - 16th September 2015

Report of the Strategic Director of Place

Adoption of Green Spaces Asset Management Plan

Purpose of Report

1. Following scrutiny of parks, nature reserves and open spaces in November 2013, it was recommended that a more strategic approach to the management and development of our green spaces be adopted. A Green Spaces Asset Management Plan (GSAMP) has now been completed, the principles and methodology of which are summarised within this report. Subject to approval, the GSAMP will form the foundation of future strategy and help to establish as a Green Council.

Background

2. Services related to the GSAMP cover a wide range of activities which can be summarised as the management, maintenance, long-term development and community engagement relating to the Borough’s parks, nature reserves, green spaces and tree stocks.

3. The Scrutiny meeting highlighted the significant improvements in parks infrastructure over the previous 10 years and the need to address continuing aspirations for further improvements against a challenging backdrop of major reductions in Council resources and greater competition for external funding.

4. The GSAMP has been developed to help define the status and value of our green spaces in future, linking them to access corridors and recognising they are at the heart of our communities. This document also supports and informs the emerging Planning Policy Development Strategy Document replacing the UDP. It also highlights the importance of green space to other Council priorities such as health, regeneration and working with communities to help themselves.

5. The Association of Public Service Excellence (APSE) performance network for parks, open spaces and horticultural services is a national benchmarking tool which has assisted in the development of quality criteria for green spaces. An assessment of individual parks and countryside sites was carried out against a range of facilities and these sites were attributed to categories A, B, C and D. Use of the APSE criteria allows participating authorities to compare their performance against a wide range of other services, but as a quality assessment tool for parks it has some limitations.

6. Identified gaps within the APSE assessment tool were addressed by creating an enhanced “Dudley version” for the purpose of categorising and comparing our parks and open spaces which we consider to be more appropriate to current parks provision and public expectation. In addition, further criteria have been included in order to allow the same methodology to be employed when evaluating nature reserves and sites of nature conservation interest. This has subsequently been ratified with the Parks Forum, (a well established and recognised panel of experts in the field from across our region).

7. As part of the scrutiny process, members were asked to support the concept of parks provision being based upon the underlying principle, within both the GSAMP and the UDP, that all residents should have access to formal parks within a 15 minute walk time which equates to approx 1000 m in a straight line.

Nature Reserves and Historic Parks

8. The GSAMP recognises Dudley’s nature reserves and historic parks which have both local and national/ international significance. They also have significance in terms of nature conservation, heritage and fundamentally as valuable ‘green’ assets accessible to our diverse communities Borough-wide. The GSAMP seeks to define an even quality of provision based upon Natural and European designations together with the Council’s own policy designations.

9. The actions which support this are as follows:

• Declaration of additional local nature reserves to fill in the gaps in coverage where practical.

• Consider priority funding to those nature reserves which fall below the APSE Category A level.

• Re-evaluation of the Sites of Importance for Nature Conservation (SINC) and Sites of Local Importance for Nature Conservation (SLINC), local layer of sites identified in the UDP and the 30 woodlands, to supplement provision.

Evaluation of Countryside and Historic Parks

Site Name To be Considered for Priority Funding Bumble Hole LNR No Fens Pool/ Buckpool (inc Barrow Hill) LNR No The Leasowes & Coombeswood, Historic Park (candidate LNR) No Wrens Nest NNR No Himley Hall and Park* No Saltwells LNR Yes

Cotwall End LNR Yes

*Outside Borough

Community Parks (Formerly Town and Local Parks)

10. The GSAMP contains a similar evaluation for Community Parks adopting the following principles:

• It recognises the transition of the parks previously designated as town parks under the UDP, and it re-designates these parks as Community Parks, it also re-designates many of the previous local parks as community parks based on their improved features following capital investment and / or their catchment area.

• It assists in identifying alternate methods of managing land, not recognised as community parks, such as meeting demand for additional allotments, burial land and grazing subject to proper consultation.

• The plan defines an even geographic distribution of designated community parks based upon the 15 minute walking distance criteria so that residents of the Borough have equal access to this type of facility.

• It seeks to achieve consistent quality standards for the designated community parks, based upon evaluation against the APSE model complimented by additional criteria related to Dudley’s specific circumstances.

11. The actions which would support this, are as follows:

• Prioritisation for grounds maintenance activity within the Council’s resource capacity to the designated community parks.

• Priority for future capital funding for those community parks which fall below the APSE Cat A level subject to local variations associated with regeneration or community focused opportunities.

• Aspiration for the community parks to achieve the Green Flag Award status as an external accreditation of their standard with due regard to resources.

The parks now proposed for the single tier category of community parks:

Site Name APSE Category

1. Stevens Park Wollescote Category A 2. Quarry Bank Park Category A 3. Mary Stevens Park Category A 4. Netherton Park Category A 5. Priory Park Category A 6. King George V, Wordsley Category A 7. Silver Jubilee Park Category A 8. Huntingtree Park Category A

9. Green Park Category B 10. Buffery Park Category B 11. Milking Bank Open Space Category B 12. King George VI, Kingswinford Category B 13. Sedgley Hall Farm Park Category B 14. Hurst Green Park Category B 15. Homer Hill Park Category B 16. The Dell Recreation Ground Category B 17. Clayton Park Category B

18. Highfields Park Category C 19. Abbey Street Rec Category C 20. Wollescote Recreation Ground Category C 21. Grange Park Category C 22. Marsh Park Category C 23. Dudley Wood Open Space Category C 24. Vale Street Open Space Category C 25. Woodside Park Category C 26. Wall Heath and Enville Road Category C

27. The Straits Open Space Category D 28. Amblecote Recreation ground Category D

Management solutions for un- designated open space

12. There is an unmet demand for additional allotments, burial land and grazing land. Therefore, once the nature reserves, historic parks and community parks have been established within the GSAMP, it is proposed that a more detailed evaluation is carried out on the land not included in the designated nature reserves, historic parks and community parks to determine if they could be used to address shortfalls in land for allotments, burial land and grazing. This would enable reallocation of resources and generation of income to further support community parks.

13. In addition, there are currently in the region of a thousand other green space sites (greater than 0.2ha) and several thousand green space sites (less than 0.2ha) which could be identified and evaluated through established consultation processes for change of use or in some cases there may be disposal opportunities which could create the opportunity for reinvestment and efficiency savings.

14. This network of selected sites should be interconnected by a system of non-car corridors in effect a ‘Green Network’ which would help make greater use of our cycle ways, canals, river corridors, disused railway lines, footways etc.) There are also opportunities to link to the developing Geopark project and wider links across the sub region more generally in terms of green infrastructure, helping to establish Dudley as a Green Council.

Community Engagement

15. The development of the parks infrastructure across the Borough over the last 10 years has gone hand-in-hand with the development of strong community engagement resulting in a legacy of in excess of 21 fully constituted Parks and Nature Reserve, Friends Groups. A meeting of the Green Space Forum on 22nd October 2013 took place, as part of the scrutiny process, the views of these groups about the future development of parks and nature reserves were sought in addition to their role in such development.

16. Thirteen groups were represented by 33 attendees on the night. The aims and objectives of the groups varied depending on the group and the nature of the site and included:

• Enhancement and development of the site.

• Protecting and monitoring the site.

• Organising community involvement and events.

• Supporting green spaces and public health staff with specific tasks.

• Projects such as creation of master plans and improvement projects. 17. The future development of nature reserves and parks in the Borough against such a challenging economic climate will only be possible by working in partnership with others and not least the people who visit the sites such as Friends groups, ward members and other organisations that often have access to funding streams which are not available to local authorities. It is important that the Council’s continued support of these groups is designed to ensure their long-term sustainability and develop wider representation for their individual nature reserves and parks.

18. It is hoped that the Friends groups could be developed and constitute themselves as a “Borough Green Spaces Forum”, along the lines of others across the West Midlands which would give them a formal voice on wider green space issues and which will provide the Council with a well informed consultation body for future developments in this service area.

Finance

19. The services detailed in the body of the report are funded by budgets held by the Street and Green Care section of Environmental Services.

20. Attracting external funding linked to a strategic approach to our wealth of green space will be critical, particularly at a time when Council revenue budgets will continue to be under severe pressure. Any successful capital bids must be supported by revenue funding or volunteer input.

Law

21. Under Section 111 of the Local Government Act 1972 the Council is empowered to do anything which is calculated to facilitate, or is conducive to, or incidental to the discharge of its functions.

Equality Impact

22. The GSAMP is Borough-wide, inclusive and accessible to all in line with the Council’s equality and diversity policies. Most major parks and nature reserves have been audited for physical accessibility and new developments are always designed in line with the Green Spaces Access Design Guidelines/ Standards.

23. The strategy is being developed and detailed within the GSAMP and will be subjected to an Equality Impact Assessment in accordance with Council policy.

Recommendations

24. That Cabinet Members support the contents of this report and endorse the attached GSAMP, members also:

a) Ensure future capital funding is prioritised to support our designated nature reserves, historic parks and community parks to attain APSE Category level A standards subject to local variations associated with regeneration and community focussed opportunities.

b) That revenue support is aligned as far as practical to support the ongoing maintenance of nature reserves, historic parks and community parks.

c) Support the ongoing development of Friends groups and assist existing and developing groups to establish the Green Spaces Forum as an independent consultative body building on the community led focus for our green spaces, helping our communities to help themselves.

d) Support the development of green corridors to encourage cycling, walking and boating across the Borough between selected green spaces linking them together to develop a Green Network of cycle ways, canals, river corridors, disused railway lines and footways unique within an urban area.

e) Support further work to identify smaller parcels of land and open space which could be considered for alternative management or disposal. Capital receipts should then be used for reinvestment into our community parks, nature reserves and Green Network, subject to appropriate consultation.

...... Alan Lunt Strategic Director Place

Contact Officer: Liz Stuffins, Green Spaces Team Leader Telephone 01384 6991 Email: [email protected]

List of Background Papers

Green Space Asset Management Plan (GSAMP)