PKS0406 - Evidence on Public Parks

Written evidence submitted by the London Borough of Waltham Forest [PKS 406]

Introduction

The London Borough of Waltham Forest is located in north east London and is home to over 271,000 residents and 104,000 households. Our population is growing rapidly, with nearly 17,000 additional residents expected by 2021 and the population exceeding 300,000 by 2024.
Waltham Forest is exceptionally proud of the number of parks and the amount open spaces that we have. Containing the most green space of any borough north of the Thames, we have 86 green spaces and look after more than 28 parks and play areas. In recent years we have sought to expand and improve our parks offer, which includes:

plans to increase the amount of open space that is easily accessible to the public through plans to open up Walthamstow Wetlands. We have received £4.4 million from the Heritage Lottery Fund for the Walthamstow Wetlands project – the creation of the largest urban wetland nature reserve in Europe. The long-term plans for the 200-ha site, which we have developed in partnership with Thames Water, will see a total of £8 million invested to open the Waltham stow Reservoirs to the public. These plans include a visitor centre which will further enhance Waltham Forest’s offer to local schools and colleges, and also tourists. It will be run by our Heritage & Culture Service once the current works scheme is finished.
Lloyd Park, which was restored in 2012 with funding from the Heritage Lottery Fund and Big Lottery Fund.
£2m on creating a new park at Leyton (Leyton Jubilee Park), with future plans to restore one of London’s only cricket pavilions at the adjacent cricket pitch.
Provision of new sports and play equipment in Leyton with our leisure services provider (GLL) as part of our legacy as an Olympic Host Borough.

We are in the unique position of being surrounded by the open land and countryside of Epping Forest and the Lea Valley which run the length of the eastern and western boundaries respectively. These areas are managed as Regional Parks by the City of London (Epping Forest) and Lee Valley Regional Park Authority. Although both extend beyond Waltham Forest, significant portions of each lie within the borough boundary. Large proportions of the borough are designated as either Green Belt or Metropolitan Open Land, affording these open spaces and parks a high degree of protection.

Park Usage in Waltham Forest

Our parks provide a variety of facilities including: children’s play areas, a cycle track, ponds, green gyms, sports courts, ornamental gardens, tree trails, ecology areas and even a model railway for children.
Parks and green spaces are used by a significant number of residents for a wide range of uses: commuters use parks to get to work; people use parks for leisure pursuits and to get fit through running, using green gyms. They are accessed by volunteer gardeners, community groups, dog walkers, schools and other educational establishments, charities to raise funds for a project, friends groups to show support and run activities for residents, and wildlife enthusiasts. The Council also utilises these spaces for activities such as annual concerts, cultural events and also commercial activity such as the recent Secret Cinema screening of Dirty Dancing that took place in Leyton Jubilee Park.
Waltham Forest’s parks are well used and well loved. For example, Lloyd Park in Walthamstow can receive 96,000 visits per annum, and the annual weekend Garden Party this year received almost 36,000 visitors for the weekend, more than 80% were residents of Waltham Forest. We believe that utilisation of facilities that we have invested in and maintain is good across the whole borough.

Investment In Parks

We have four priorities in place for 2015 – 18, one of which is to “help all our residents enjoy a good quality life”. This priority includes the following commitment:

Maintaining high quality parks, green spaces and affordable, modern leisure centres. Twelve play areas and six open spaces in the borough are set to be improved through a £1million investment. These include the refurbishment of a skate park in Leytonstone, the installation of a new artificial play surface in Highams Park, petanque terrains in Walthamstow and the refurbishment of an outdoor gym in Chingford.

This reinforces the increased investment that we have made in our parks and green spaces over the past six years, at a time when we have had to make savings of £100m (2010 – 17). Since 2010 we have invested £1.9m in improving parks and open spaces. Our improvement programme has focussed on a range of improvements, such as new synthetic grass surfaces, creation or improvements to sports play areas, and new gates and fences. We have also worked with the Lawn Tennis Association on a £500,000 refurbishment of Ridgeway Park in Chingford which is now a tennis hub for the borough.
Despite this significant capital investment, a need to make savings from the Council’s overall budget is slowly beginning to impact on parks maintenance. At present we are only able to undertake minor repairs to maintain safety in parks rather than undertake a comprehensive programme of major maintenance/renewal of park paths, fences, benches, bins, signs etc. as we would like. We are also considering applying for fewer Keep Britain Tidy certificates or Green Flag accreditations because of the costs of applying and the resulting cost of maintaining parks to a high standard throughout the rest year.

Economic Advantages of Investment in Parks

House prices in Waltham Forest are rapidly increasing. The average house prices have increased by 59% in the last five years (compared to 39% London average) and 15% in the last year (compared to 10% across London). We believe that as well as being the result of population and housing pressures that are being felt all across London, the strong growth in house prices is in part due to the work of the Council to make the borough an attractive place to live and work, as supported by the priority and commitment set out above..
Investment in our parks and open spaces underpins the work of the Council to make the borough more attractive to developers and new and existing residents at a time when our population is increasing rapidly. Our material promoting the borough to housing and business investors prominently references the fact that we have the most green space for any borough north of the Thames. Our investment in parks is important in ensuring that we expand and improve the borough’s economy, not only for the benefit of residents who depend on this investment for employment, but for the Council as our finances are increasingly reliant on our ability to attract investment to the borough.

Public Health Advantages of Investment in Parks

This investment in parks and open spaces also supports the responsibilities for public health that were given to the Council in 2012. The Waltham Forest Health and Wellbeing Board Strategy for 2016 – 2020 has made a commitment to “Ensure that physical activity and other programmes in parks are being accessed by those most in need.”
It is well known within public health care that benefit can be derived from activities in parks, even if it is just getting out for a walk, especially in urban areas where there will be an increased benefit to using a green space without the fuss and speed of cars and exhaust fumes.
Quantifying the contribution of parks on the health and wellbeing of communities is difficult, but anecdotal evidence confirms that the borough’s parks, play areas, Multi-Use Games Areas (MUGAs) and outdoor gyms are well used, and that people should therefore be gaining some degree of health benefit.
Waltham Forest Council also supports the Our Parks scheme which brings free group exercise classes, led by experienced, fully qualified and insured instructors, to parks. Last year 4,073 residents signed up for classes, attending a combined total of nearly 15,000 fitness sessions. Seventy-eight per cent of participants hadn’t been doing any exercise before they signed up, and 68 per cent of users are returning each week. 20 per cent of Our Parks members have visited their GP less often since joining the scheme, but as well as the health benefits, the scheme gives people the chance to exercise outside for free, and the social element of meeting new people is an attraction for many.
The Council has also acted to ensure that people using parks are not subject to passive smoking and that our parks promote smoking cessation by banning smoking in all of our parks and playgrounds.
Since 2010 the Office for National Statistics has measured National Wellbeing and this information is broken down by local authority. Datasets that are measured to evaluate changing levels of Wellbeing include “engaged with/ participated in arts or cultural activity at least 3 times in the last year” and “adult participation in 30 minutes of moderate intensity sport, once per week.” We would recommend that a new measure be included which tracks individuals’ access to parks and green space, so that the relationship between parks/ green space and wellbeing/ mental health can be better understood, but also used to protect investment and support for those parks and green spaces.

Governance Arrangements for London Parks

As we have stated above (paragraph 3) a significant amount of our green space is managed by local authorities or statutory bodies other than the Council – the Corporation of the City of London (Epping Forest) and Lea Valley Regional Park Authority. Whilst we welcome the expertise that both these bodies bring to the management of these tracts of open land, it is regrettable that the Council does not have a greater say in how this land is managed on behalf of residents. Lee Valley Regional Park Authority’s management is composed of representatives of every London borough regardless of geographic proximity, residents use or financial contribution. A large number of residents also use Epping Forest and Waltham Forest Council does not have a formal role with regards to development of plans or consultations on the future management of this open land. We would welcome further scrutiny of these governance arrangements.
However, we believe that there is also a role for greater pan-London coordination and promotion of parks and open spaces. Waltham Forest Council is pleased to support the campaign to have London recognised as the country’s first National Park City (http://www.nationalparkcity.london/). We support this campaign because of our commitment to green spaces, but also the work that would be undertaken for London’s green spaces and parks to be promoted across the city, not just to residents but also to tourists. Walthamstow Wetlands and Epping Forest should be major tourist destinations in the capital and designating London a national park city, or opening a dedicated parks information office in central London, would help to achieve this.