Lambeth Cooperative Park Management Proposals Information Booklet 1 Foreword Lambeth has 60 wonderful parks and green spaces which for many without private gardens, provide a haven that contributes to people’s enjoyment of living, working, and visiting Lambeth. This is shown with the number of weddings, picnics, and range of outdoor events held throughout the year. The different co mmunities coming together to play sports, enjoy a spot of gardening, or relax. We can see that their natural environment and surroundings can act as rehabilitative safe havens for people to escape from the hustle and bustle of inner city living and feel a part of nature. However we also know that we are living in a changing environment. One in which we must find £178million of savings by 2016, representing 45% of the Council’s controllable budget. One where public services should aim to grow and achieve more for the wider community. And although challenging, instead of accepting that we should do less with what we have available; we want to take this opportunity to be more inventive and reinvigorate our parks service. We have a great foundation already looking at our many active and enthusiastic park users, friends, and community groups, and the first step for us is to find out from them what is important in your parks service. History shows us how community involvement in park management and services can be hugely successful and the sense of local ownership and pride it can engender and we seek to support this work. Together, we could build upon the progress and achievements made through the years of Lottery Investment, Green Flag Awards, and new gardening projects and begin to shape, design, and deliver a more ambitious vision for our park services that gives you more control and say. This is a challenge which I welcome and think Lambeth is ready for. I am very pleased to be involved in this cooperative parks programme and ask you to please read this booklet and send us your thoughts to help us improve our approach. Cllr Sally Prentice Cabinet Member for Culture and Leisure 2 Lambeth Parks and Green Spaces: An Introduction Parks and open spaces improve our physical and psychological health, strengthen our communities, and make our neighbourhoods more attractive places to live, work, and visit. Our vast array of green open spaces are fantastic assets for the borough and ensuring they remain this way amidst challenging financial circumstances takes effort. As a borough, we know that we have to find increasing levels of sa vings by 2016, whilst maintaining our high standard of services. However we also know the value placed in our parks and green spaces, proved time and time again, most recently through the Lambeth Residents Survey which revealed 78% of our residents’ rate our parks and green spaces as good or excellent. Therefore, instead of accepting to do less with a smaller budget, we want to build on this potential and try and do something different. By looking at our parks differently we could create opportunities for more environmental education programmes, support more training, and employment places for disadvantaged groups, and focus on public health by transforming underused spaces into healthy food growing spaces and community gardens. All of which can only be done with the support of our many active and enthusiastic friends of parks and community groups. This booklet is the beginning of our journey to understand your ambition for the parks service and give you a chance to be more involved and have a say in how and what we deliver. We have included: • themes to explore in developing and testing a joint vision for our parks service • proposals for new models of cooperative management in parks, which include management approaches where the Council and local people could make decisions together on where money is spent and on what • detailed and transparent financial information and budgets • a profile on capital investment in parks and plans for the future This will give us lots to talk about. However we think our parks and green spaces are worth it and see the future being one that recognises the potential of our parks. 3 Lambeth Parks and Green Spaces: A Vision for the Future We need to agree a vision that is aspirational and captures the major contributions that parks an d green spaces can make across a number of themes, including: • improving public health • improving mental health • stronger communities • stimulating local economy • improving the environment • safer communities • increased learning, training, and employment • developing local businesses • higher quality facilities Based on these themes, we have proposed the following vision for the service: ‘All residents will have access to an attractive park and open space where they can enjoy and create opportunities to engage in leisure, heritage, and sports and learn new skills.’ 4 Lambeth Parks and Green Spaces: Cooperative Management 1. What is cooperative management? The term ‘cooperative management’ describes a situation where instead of the Council providing parks management and maintenance services in the manner it always has, the emphasis is shifted towards joint decision-making. This could lead to a different management approach set up where the Council, councillors, and local people come together to jointly make decisions on where money is spent and on what. 2. Why are we doing this? We want to better understand what your priorities are and find new ways of meeting them. We also recognise that we are not necessarily always the best placed to make decisions and want to ensure that you have the opportunity to be involved in the decisions that impact you. 3. What will be the main changes with cooperative management? The Council currently provides services by carrying out research, developing proposals, and consulting with the public. As part of a more cooperative approach, we would involve you at the outset to understand what the local need is, what services would best address that need, and how we could best make that happen. Decisions regarding your local space would be made together and to help us do so, we will be more open about what resources we have available. 4. Has this been done before? Lambeth is fortunate to have several Management Advisory Committees and Friends Groups already established that feed in or manage local services – particularly in parks and green spaces. For example, the Lorn Road Allotments Management Advisory Committee already work cooperatively by managing the site (including holding regular meetings with allotment holders) and ensuring its everyday effective administration. The Council retains certain key functions and ownership of the land and is responsible for duty of care of site. Myatt’s Field Park and Brockwell Park are other examples of where cooperative working is already a large part of everyday management. 5 There are also a number of other projects outside of parks and green spaces that build on this idea of joint partnership working with the local authority. The Cooperative Libraries programme is a good example of where residents, community groups (or Friends groups), and the council are working together to improve our libraries so they better meet the needs of the local neighbourhood. Similar to parks, this programme is not about applying one set model for running a library service - it is about creating tailored management models that work for different sites and establishing an equal partnership to improve services for everyone. If you want to find out more about this project go to www.lambeth.gov.uk/Cooperativelibraries . 5. How will this impact me? We are proposing to look at new and different approaches to managing our parks and green spaces that support local community groups and organisations to choose how involved they want to be in the direct management of their park or green space. This could range from little to no involvement, to a joint partnership arrangement with the Council, to independent management – it’s up to you (further details are provided below). Practically speaking, this could mean that a qualified and experienced group could be managing your local park, a facility in your park (e.g. a football pitch), or a section of your park (e.g. formal gardens) and making decisions on its use, either independently or as part of a partnership with the Council. 6 Lambeth Parks and Green Spaces: Cooperative Management Models Over the past year we have had a number of conversations with local friends of parks groups and ward councillors to help us shape a cooperative model for managing parks and green spaces. This model aims to involve communities more in local decision-making (where interested) and provide an opportunity for residents and park users to have more say in what is important and what goes on in their park. To that end, three distinguishable levels of park management have been proposed that describe what cooperative involvement and responsibility in parks and green spaces could look like. For example, communities or friends groups could be taking on a more hands-on role in the use, improvement, and maintenance of our parks, and at the far end of the spectrum, could be taking on sole management of a space. The proposed cooperative management models are described in further detail below – however these are intended to act only as a guide. Level One: Council-Led Management This model represents a more traditional approach to managing park and green spaces and might be most suitable for spaces that do not have an active Friends group or have a Friends group that is happy with the current arrangement and prefers little formal responsibility for its management.