Agenda item

A deputation had been received from the Haringey Friends of Parks Forum in relation to item 9 of the Agenda – the Borough Plan – and in relation to the objective of protecting and improving parks, open spaces and green space, as well as promoting community use.

Mr Dave Morris, Chair of Haringey Friends of Parks Forum, was invited by the Leader to put forward his deputation to Cabinet.

Mr Morris introduced the Cabinet to the deputation pack of documents. Mr Morris began his representations by highlighting that the Forum were the Council’s key partner in the running of the Borough’s green spaces. The Forum represented 45 or more Local Friends of Parks Groups and spoke for park users and local communities. Mr Morris highlighted that the Forum raised millions of pounds for improvements and annually added thousands of hours of volunteering to improve parks.

Mr Morris emphasised that green spaces were unique resources for all ages and sections of communities for a whole range of benefits, which were either statutory outcomes the Council were trying to achieve or the Council policy commitments. Mr Morris noted that the Forum wanted all the Council departments to recognise the central importance of parks for all of the outcomes that they aimed to achieve. 

Mr Morris pointed out that there was a growing underfunding and understaffing crisis in the Parks Service, which emanated since budgets were cut by 50% in 2011. Mr Morris noted that the situation was deteriorating year on year and referred to the Evidence Sources in bullet points within the deputation pack of documents. Mr Morris argued that failure to reverse the underfunding would lead to growing anti-social behaviour, collapse in usage, and a colossal effort and huge costs at a later stage to try to restore the situation.

Mr Morris asserted that solutions that been identified and put forward that the Forum called for:

• The Cabinet to implement in full the 2018 recommendations of the Council’s Scrutiny Committee on Parks, many of which had been agreed or partially agreed by the Cabinet
• The Cabinet to implement its manifesto commitments to invest more in parks; and
• Adequate funding levels to be provided to the Parks Service so they could achieve those commitments.

Mr Morris mentioned that the Cabinet had agreed in principle to protect all of Haringey’s parks ‘in perpetuity’ and increase the number of those reaching Green Flag standard; however, inappropriate uses of parks would compromise and undermine such aims, such as organising or allowing huge disruptive and controversial commercial events which would cause detriment and exclude local residents from their park during the Summer.

Mr Morris noted that the most important part of the proposal was that the Forum called for the Cabinet to initiate a full investigation into how the Parks Service could get access to appropriate sources of funding from a whole range of sources from planning gain (CIL and s106), Transport for London travel budgets, public health,  other departments, capital pots, and appropriate outside sources. Mr Morris provided an example of the public health budget of £28 million a year to promote public health, and suggested that the Council could fund out of the public health budget for 30 health rangers that could work in the parks, which would double the ground staff for only a million pounds a year out of that 28 million. Mr Morris concluded his deputation by asking Cabinet to convene an investigation of a whole range of funding sources that could stave off the gradual collapse of the Parks Service.

Following the deputation, the Leader invited Cabinet Members to ask questions.

Cllr Bull queried whether there had been any conversations with Friends of Parks at other local authorities that were facing a similar situation as the Council, and whether there was a Friends of Parks Group that covered North London that would allow cross borough conversations, whereby ideas could be tapped into. In response Mr Morris noted that there was a national movement of 7000 Friends of Parks Group. Mr Morris mentioned that he had an understanding of what was going on in the country as he was Chair of the National Federation of Parks and Greenspaces, which represented the Friends of Parks groups. Mr Morris acknowledged that there was a general problem of massive cuts to public services, and that the Forum had not called for money to be taken out of other services. Mr Morris noted that parks needed to be managed properly as they provide an essential service. Mr Morris further explained that money needed to be invested into the Parks Service to ensure the statutory outcomes of other services could be achieved. Mr Morris requested that the Cabinet initiate action immediately to stave off the growing crisis. Mr Morris pointed out that last summer the litter became an unmanageable problem and since then the Council lost accreditation for Green Flags in a number of cases. Mr Morris mentioned further that the Green Flag judgment of the Council’s Green Flag parks was that they were struggling to achieve minimum standards that every park should achieve for its local community. Mr Morris hoped that the Cabinet took this issue very seriously and highlighted that the Forum proposed a sensible and urgent course of action.

Cllr Brabazon thanked Mr Morris for the deputation and praised the work of Friends of Parks. Cllr Brabazon then referred to page 3 of the Scrutiny report in the deputation pack, which referenced match funding, and queried whether the Forum had any meetings where match funding ideas had been put forward, and whether the Forum had any discussions with Officers about lottery bids or other bids where match funding would apply. In response Mr Morris explained that match funding, outside sources of funding or internal sources of funding from other departments were essential to the survival of the Parks Service. Mr Morris highlighted that Friends Groups were partners in lottery bids, but those were additional projects and didn’t deal with the fundamental ongoing revenue needed to manage parks in the Borough. Mr Morris explained that the Mayor of London’s policy promoted healthy and safe routes for walking and cycling, and parks were the perfect source. Mr Morris further explained that as the Parks Service had no budget to maintain its paths effectively, the Transport for London budgets could be channelled in that direction, as well as the Community Interest Levy from planning gain, s106, public health, and other capital pots. Mr Morris requested Cabinet to urgently convene an immediate investigation into all the pots, some of which could be used to stave off the immediate crisis and some that could be discussed as part of a long term strategy, which Mr Morris noted was being done in partnership with Council Parks officers.

Cllr Amin asked about lobbying for more funding for parks and queried what the Forum had done to ensure better funding from Central Government.  In response Mr Morris highlighted that all levels of government needed to take the issue seriously. Mr Morris noted that every Council in the country needed to be able to grapple with this from within their budgetary means and areas of influence. Mr Morris asserted that there needed to be pressure on the Government and highlighted that there was a concerted lobbying effort. Mr Morris noted the Cabinet could sign the Charter for Parks, which 24 significant national organisations had already signed. Mr Morris explained that the Charter called for parks to be a properly funded statutory service throughout the country, which would help put pressure on the Government to release more funds to the public services and ring fence funding for parks.

The Leader noted that parks were a non-statutory service, and that a number of Councils were deprioritising parks and some Councils made their parks self-financing, whilst Haringey Council had been committed to putting some money into parks. The Leader queried how the Forum felt the Council should prioritise parks in a time of difficult budget, and whether it would be unreasonable for Councils to sought to try to make parks pay for themselves. In response Mr Morris noted that parks could not pay for themselves. Mr Morris highlighted that the point was not to be in competition with other essential services, but to work together to get the maximum benefits. Mr Morris acknowledged that parks were not designated as a statutory service but reiterated that parks provided all kinds of statutory outcomes in terms of health and well-being, transport routes, social cohesion and crime reduction. Mr Morris noted that there was no ring fence funding for parks to ensure it could fulfil its mandate to achieve those outcomes. Mr Morris mentioned that it was down to Cabinet to make sure that parks, as a non-statutory service, were provided the funding it required to deliver the statutory outcomes and the Council policy commitments that the Cabinet had made.

The Leader invited the Cabinet Member for Climate Change and Sustainability to respond to the deputation.

The Cabinet Member for Climate Change and Sustainability thanked Mr Morris for the deputation. In response to the representations, she made the following points:

• The Council were committed to maintaining a range of good and excellent parks. The Cabinet Member noted that since the issues the Council faced last year with the parks the Council had worked very hard to bring the parks to a good standard. The Cabinet Member was hopeful that the results of the examination by Keep Britain Tidy would be positive. 
• In terms of funding, the Cabinet Member noted that the Council had struggled to maintain parks funding since 2011 when the Council faced extraordinary cuts, which included cuts to the parks budget. Last year the Cabinet Member managed to protect the budget, but the Cabinet Member pointed out that this would be extremely difficult due to cuts of £18 million. The Cabinet Member asserted that the Council would need to develop a strategy on how the Council could externally fund the Council’s parks as much as it could. The Cabinet Member acknowledged that the challenge would be that the Council would have to give something back when external funding is sought, for example the Transport for London funding for cycling and walking routes through parks would have an implication for the nature of the parks in themselves. In consideration of the challenges, the Cabinet Member was committed to working with officers to look at what could be found by way of funding. The Cabinet Member agreed that there were some streams the Council could look into further. The Cabinet Member noted that the Council had a capital funding budget of about £12million this year, which the Council were developing a work programme for in consultation with Friends of the Parks, as well as looking at other needs, such as things that needed repairing. The Cabinet Member asserted that the Council were aware of the importance of parks as well as dealing with climate change. The Cabinet Member believed that there were many ways to further look at bringing more funding for parks. The Cabinet Member pointed out that it was very difficult to defend parks when there were cuts to social care for individuals. The Cabinet Member concluded that other funding streams would be looked into with officers to determine where the Council could maximise in getting in funding into the Council’s park, but the Cabinet Member acknowledged that this would not be easy. 

The Leader thanked the Cabinet Member for Climate Change and Sustainability for her response , and thanked Mr Morris for the deputation.