Wakefield Greenspace Strategy 2014 documents/LR5.3 Draft Greenspace Strategy 2014.pdfThe Leisure,...

Wakefield Greenspace Strategy 2014

G r e e n s p a c e S t r a t e g y 2

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Version 1.0

Summary

Nationally, public parks have undergone a renaissance in popularity following almost

two decades of sustained investment. But successive budget cuts now pose a threat

of steep decline in the quality of all public open spaces, with the potential to impact

upon valuable benefits such as public health and wellbeing, the local economy and

the health of the environment.

In particular, the greenspace network is critical in helping to combat priority health

issues such as stress and obesity - and green infrastructure in protecting residents

from the impacts of climate change such as flooding.

In this second greenspace strategy (GS2) we look at how Wakefield Council can

potentially sustain and enhance the greenspace network in challenging financial

times and continue to provide benefits for residents, neighbourhoods and the

environment.

Enhancement projects will be more strategic and plans will be developed for whole

sites and groups of sites. Workloads will be programmed over the longer term, and

development of park infrastructure and green infrastructure will be prioritised.

Forecasted cuts in revenue funding will require Street Scene Services to explore new

and innovative approaches to management and funding of greenspaces in

collaboration with stakeholders.


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Objectives

To secure the commitment, resources and skills necessary to fund, staff and

manage the greenspace network to a good standard.

To improve the appeal of the network to attract more visitors more frequently

in order to benefit health and wellbeing, community cohesion and the local

economy.

To develop green infrastructure to achieve environmental benefits such as

flood protection, sustainable transport links and wildlife preservation.

To install new site management arrangements involving new organisations

and partnerships, and new arrangements with volunteer groups, residents

and businesses.

To implement innovative funding solutions through measures such as

diversification, optimising incomes, and promoting business, enterprise and

commerce.

Vision

An attractive, interconnected and multifunctional greenspace network

that is of good quality and is well managed, financed and planned,

providing substantial health, economic and environmental benefits to

the residents of the Wakefield District


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Background

Nationally, the number of visits to public parks has been increasing significantly in

recent years. It was recently reported that 83% of households with children aged

five or under visit their local park at least once a month.

In Wakefield District, the number of estimated visits to public parks has almost

doubled to 19 million visits per year in the last ten years.

This popularity reflects the steady investment in the greenspace network over the

last two decades. But the service is non-statutory and successive cuts in council

budgets are expected to continue to the end of the decade posing a threat of steep

decline if action is not taken.

The first Wakefield Greenspace Strategy, which expired in 2009, aimed to develop a

fairer distribution of greenspaces by allocating catchment distances to different types

of greenspace. This was followed in 2010 by the Wakefield Green Infrastructure Plan

which set out a programme of infrastructure projects centred around forestry.

The Leisure, Recreation and Open Space plan (LROS) - part of the Local

Development Framework - is being developed by Spatial Planning at the same time

as GS2 is being developed by Street Scene Services. LROS is a statutory planning

document for the strategic preservation, development and planning of greenspace

and green infrastructure.

This second greenspace strategy makes recommendations for how we should

preserve and enhance the greenspace network at a time when the benefits of the

network were never more important to residents and the environment.

Research for GS2 indicated that the distribution of greenspace was generally

reasonable and that there was a large amount of it. Greenspace quality was the

greater issue – with the west of the district faring better than the east, and

countryside sites faring better than urban sites.


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Residents told us that their favourite greenspace in the district was Newmillerdam

Country Park and their most used was Thornes Park, and that responsible dog

ownership and the amount of litter dropped were the two things in most need of

improvement.

GS2 is well placed to meet the District Outcomes Framework 2014/15 as shown in

Table 1, where the redness of squares indicates best alignment between GS2 and

the District Outcomes Framework.

Strategic

Theme

Caring for

our people

Caring for

our places

Ambitious for

our young

people

Modern

public

services

District

Outcome

The most

vulnerable adults

are supported

and safe

Economic growth

for businesses

and more jobs for

residents

Children and

Young People are

supported and

safe

Re-formed

public services

delivering

District

Outcomes

Improved health

and wellbeing

Improved

physical

infrastructure for

growth

Children and

Young People are

ambitious and

achieve

Integrated

public services

delivering

District

Outcomes

Communities are

safer

A skilled

workforce

connected to

economic

opportunity

Young people

have the skills for

a successful

transition to

adulthood

Improved public

services

delivering

District

Outcomes

Table 1: How GS2 Potentially Meets the District Outcomes Framework


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Descriptions of terms

Greenspace in this context is publicly accessible land of any ownership and

includes:

Urban Parks and play facilities

Country Parks and natural areas

Sportsfields and informal kickabout areas

Amenity areas suitable for recreation

Churchgrounds

Green corridors

Park infrastructure applies to all the above categories of greenspace and

includes:

Site layout, legibility, routes and access

Pathways, entrances, boundaries, furniture and parking

Signage, interpretation and information

Features and facilities

Views and landscape

Green infrastructure in the context of this report includes:

The network of accessible greenspaces and their interconnectivity

The multi-functional uses and benefits of greenspaces and linkages

Environmental services that mitigate or adapt to the impacts of climate

change such as flood prevention, reducing urban temperatures, carbon

sequestration through forestry and biodiversity adaptation

Other environmental services such as pollution reduction and habitat

networks for wildlife


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Discussion

1. Caring for our people

Obesity, illness and poor mental health reduce the quality of life for many residents

and are very costly in terms of health care, absenteeism at work and cost of welfare.

The greenspace network has the potential to be a valuable resource in the battle

against poor health and stress, but it needs to be developed appropriately to

effectively fulfil this role.

Firstly, the greenspace network must appeal more to visitors – residents must want

to visit - and revisit with some frequency, and this requires greenspaces to be:

Safe and easy to access

Welcoming, clean and cared for

Secure, safe and feel safe

With a well-designed layout and attractive in appearance

With good condition and well-designed features, facilities and infrastructure

And accessible to immobile visitors where reasonable

Secondly, opportunities must exist for worthwhile and rewarding exercise and

relaxation for all age groups. There has been a sustained drift away from organised

team sports towards more informal recreation requiring:

High quality green linkages between sites

Circular routes for walking, jogging and cycling

Good standard of pathways with open views

Quiet and attractive areas for relaxation

Informal kickabout areas for ball games

Opportunities for exercise such as outdoor gym equipment and basketball

hoops


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2. Caring for our places

In order to care for our people we must also care for our places. Good quality sites

have a positive impact on neighbourhoods, anything less than this has a negative

impact. We need to develop our greenspaces in ways such as:

Plan for the whole site – prepare management plans that address the whole

site at once and prioritise projects into an action plan.

Insist on good design and construction – specify well designed features and

furniture - poor design and construction downgrade a site.

Optimise uses – greenspaces should be multifunctional and provide for

different recreational activities and environmental functions.

Understand the landscape - create views and a feeling of openness – remove

poorly positioned trees and bushes and save money from their maintenance.

Address neglect – items that look neglected should be replaced, refurbished,

or removed (and re-landscaped) or transferred to alternative management to

be upgraded.

Review grounds maintenance – as a result of stretched resources – curtail

less important maintenance tasks and promote low maintenance, simple and

naturalistic designs.

Review cleansing – as a result of stretched resources – visitors need to be

persuaded to use bins or take home their litter and waste. Widespread

littering is expensive to clear up and has a disproportional impact on

promoting the district and tourism.

Develop an approach to regulation and enforcement to improve visitor

responsibility for dogs, littering and other behaviour.

We also need to care for the health of our environment, and we can contribute to

this through developing green infrastructure:

Prepare green infrastructure management plans at an appropriate scale –

from local, to district, regional and national plans.


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Improve drainage infrastructure for sites with recurrent flooding or that cause

flooding of adjacent land or transport infrastructure.

Develop new broadleaf woodlands which capture carbon, can be harvested

for products or biofuel, provide habitat for wildlife and can reduce flood risk.

Improve green linkages between sites (and between sites and communities)

to reduce car usage and provide habitat networks and wildlife migration

routes.

Implement the Local Biodiversity Action Plan in close coordination with

development of green infrastructure.

Ecosystem services include direct and easily costed services such as food and

timber production, clean water, renewable energy and biomass – and indirect

services that are harder to value such as water treatment, flood prevention,

air quality, carbon sequestration and biodiversity.

Other important benefits of good quality greenspace and green infrastructure

include:

Economic growth – attractive greenspaces appeal to businesses and

investors, increase competitiveness and productivity, and create more jobs for

residents. Property and land values near quality open spaces are enhanced.

Improved physical infrastructure for growth – high quality greenspaces can

help develop the tourism industry, increase tourism spend and has a knock-on

effect to other service industries – creating local jobs for residents.

Attracting skilled workers - Skilled workers and students are more likely to

relocate and remain in areas with attractive greenspaces.

Volunteering in relation to greenspace develops skills and knowledge such as

engagement with democratic processes that can be valuable in the workplace

and in securing employment.

Good quality greenspaces provide a setting for people from different

ethnicities and nationalities to use and share resulting in potentially greater

social cohesion.


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Figure 1: Flowchart for Development of the Greenspace Network

The Greenspace

Strategy GS2

Wakefield Green

Infrastructure Plan

Leisure, Recreation

and Open Space

Plan

Strategic Guidance

Greenspace Site

Management Plans

Thematic

Management Plans

Green Infrastructure

Management Plans

Management Plans

Action Plans in

Management Plans

Authorised

Proposals

Parks Capital

Investment Plan

Delivery Programmes


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3. Improving our places

In future, project selection will be increasingly guided by GS2 strategic priorities and

the District Outcomes Framework, and workloads will be better programmed. We will

continue to respond to external requests but we would expect fewer to proceed as

project selection becomes more strategic.

Evidence of need is no longer sufficient justification to proceed with a proposal,

since recreational needs are so many and so widespread. Our approach will be

based on strategic priorities and fairness to provide something for everyone, rather

than everything for everyone.

All project proposals will continue to require authorisation to proceed in principle. A

Project Initiation Template must be submitted by the project leader for internal

consultation and then require authorisation by Street Scene Area Managers followed

by public engagement.

Where a decision cannot easily be reached it is legitimate to respond by highlighting

our reservations as a start point for discussions. Proposals that do not demonstrate

how maintenance costs are covered are unlikely to be authorised.

There will be a new focus on providing facilities in hubs which will allow us to

provide a higher standard of sport, play or other outdoor experiences as opposed to

providing a lower standard of provision that is more widespread.

Most projects will originate from management plans developed in partnership with

stakeholders such as a community groups. The three different types of management

plans are shown in Table 2.

Management plans for sites should follow the Green Flag Award format. All

management plans will increasingly require business plans in order to demonstrate

sustainability.


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Type of Management Plan Description

Green Infrastructure Management plans for green infrastructure can

cover large areas often including groups of sites in

order to capture interconnectivity of infrastructure

such as drainage, habitat networks and green

linkages

Greenspace Site Management plans for sites provide actions

required to realise a vision and normally include a

landscape survey and an appraisal of park

infrastructure and green infrastructure

Thematic Plans These are management plans that appraise

facilities across the district by theme such as

changing rooms, play areas, Pay & Play facilities or

bridges

Table 2: Types of Management Plans

Volunteers acting within community groups kindly donate their time to activities such

as helping develop plans, submitting funding applications and performing tasks on

site often providing self-supervision. But increasing numbers of willing volunteers

and increasing operational needs present us with an opportunity to review and

potentially expand the role of the voluntary and community sector.

Wakefield Council promotes its greenspaces through Experience Wakefield and

Wakefield Council websites, and through events such as the successful Love Parks

Week.

Walking and cycling routes that are promoted should be regularly audited and

maintained in order to feel more cared for – and attract repeat visits.


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4. Management and Funding

Greenspace sites in the district are managed by a range of bodies including the

National Trust (Nostell Priory), the Land Trust (Frickley Country Park), charities

(Yorkshire Sculpture Park), parish councils (South Elmsall Park) and sports clubs

(Altofts FSC) - but the vast majority, including countryside sites, are managed and

maintained by Wakefield Council’s Street Scene Services.

Capital improvement projects are mostly funded by external grants such as WREN,

which require Wakefield Council to work in partnership with community groups.

External grants are almost always directed at facilities rather than infrastructure, and

are becoming more difficult to secure as fewer become available.

Match funding of different pots of money is commonly used to optimise external

grants. Capital funding from Wakefield Council is rarely used and even then only as

a last resort.

Section 106 developer contributions are allocated to capital projects and increasingly

for revenue also. A Project Start Approval form requires authorisation in order to use

section 106 monies for capital schemes.

Funding for maintenance is mostly sourced from Wakefield Council’s allocated

revenue budget which has been cut and is potentially facing further cuts. Savings of

£125k by 2014/15 will require that some services and maintenance operations will

be withdrawn or reduced.

Many commentators identify the potential revenue crisis as the point at which land

management authorities will need to completely revaluate how parks are operated.

Reports exist of motivated and innovative groups stepping forward and transforming

their local spaces – but no single model is yet emerging – and the risks are not

insignificant.


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Presented with a potential funding crisis, Wakefield Council will need to consider a

range of options in collaboration with stakeholders including:

Providing greater opportunities for business, enterprise and commerce

Optimising incomes and charges, and reducing costs

Identifying and securing new and diverse revenue streams

Entering into management partnerships with bodies such as other agencies

Installing management organisations such as trusts and social enterprises

Leasing assets, parts of parks or complete sites to competent bodies

Considering outsourcing delivery of some services to competent bodies

Increasing connections to the local community, businesses and developments

Site management, ownership and land use may have to be reappraised in order to

access different sources of capital and revenue funding.

Maintenance costs will need to be transparently presented in order for land

managers to make informed decisions.

Rules governing access to funding streams such as receipts from land sales may

need to be challenged in order for the income - or a portion of it – to be invested

back into greenspaces or allocated to management of greenspaces.

Undertaking changes to site management and funding is a challenging role for Street

Scene Services and the third sector, and requires substantial resources. New skills

will need to be developed and organisational structures will need to be adapted. The

alternative is to reduce parks to very low maintenance landscapes with few features

and facilities – and even that would be costly to achieve.

Currently, practitioners working for Wakefield Council in relation to greenspace and

green infrastructure are based in several diffuse locations. It is therefore uncommon

that staff working in the same field ever meet or network, and the situation is

exacerbated by high workloads. The Street Scene Services organisational structure

generally inhibits a strategic approach since officers report to different Street Scene

Area Managers with different priorities.


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5. Planning for Greenspace

GS2 strongly advocates a shift towards much greater planning and programming of

projects and this will mostly be achieved through management plans and the parks

capital investment plan.

An assessment of greenspace provision will identify areas of over provision and

under provision. Proposals will be considered for disposal of sites, or parts of sites,

that are unused, redundant or of low value to communities.

The LROS plan will set out statutory planning guidance and specific

recommendations for the greenspace network and green infrastructure, with specific

reference to GS2 and the Wakefield Green Infrastructure Plan.

The Community Infrastructure Levy will provide funding for park infrastructure and

green infrastructure should Wakefield Council decide to adopt it. Management plans

will need to provide justification for such infrastructure and estimates of costs.

Street Scene Services comment on every planning application for new residential

developments and those that have the potential to impact upon accessible

greenspace. The Residential Design Guide provides the basis for greenspace

recommendations along with the greenspace catchment distances shown in Table 1

which are closely based on those in the first Greenspace Strategy.

Category of Greenspace Catchment Distance

Accessible Greenspace 120m

Accessible Greenspace >2ha 300m

Natural Area >2ha 500m

Natural Area >20ha 2km

Natural Area >100ha 5km

Equipped Play Area 480m

Kickabout Area 250m

Table 1: Accessible Greenspace Catchment Distances


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6. The Action Plan

1. Income and

Savings

We will review all existing sources of income and explore new ones

We will implement savings whilst minimising impact on services and

standards of maintenance

We will endeavour to fully recover costs for the services we provide

such as allotments

2. Rationalisation

of Assets

We will renew and regenerate our greenspace provision by disposing

of redundant assets of low value to communities and investing in ones

of higher value

We will develop hubs which provide for higher quality recreational

activities and services

We will transfer management of facilities to clubs through leases at a

peppercorn rent

3. Review of

Operations

We will review grounds maintenance operations and specifications

We will implement more naturalistic designs for greenspace

4. Management

Planning

We will prepare site Management Plans for our destination parks

We will prepare a green infrastructure Management Plan for the area

containing our core five countryside sites

We will prepare thematic Management Plans for assets such as play

facilities, green corridors, site drainage, trees and woodlands, Pay and

Play facilities, bridges and changing rooms

5. Greenspace

Planning

We will set up working groups to bring together practitioners of green

infrastructure

We will plan to optimise our allocation of the potential Community

Infrastructure Levy and support the development of the Leisure,

Recreation and Open Space Plan

We will carry out an audit to update our GIS maps of accessible

greenspace which are used in our assessment of planning applications

6. Community &

Communications

We will develop a plan for working with the volunteer sector

We will develop a communications plan for GS2

Wakefield Greenspace Strategy 2014 documents/LR5.3 Draft Greenspace Strategy 2014.pdfThe Leisure,...

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Transcript of Wakefield Greenspace Strategy 2014 documents/LR5.3 Draft Greenspace Strategy 2014.pdfThe Leisure,...