Managing and maintaining Camden’s green spaces

The grounds maintenance survey is now closed. 

 

We have been exploring how we can maintain Camden’s parks and open spaces differently in order to reduce costs due to the substantial budget pressures we face across the Council. 

 

From Thursday 17 September 2015 to Friday 30 October 2015 we engaged with residents to help inform our future priorities. Thank you to everyone who took part. We received 690 responses to our survey and a summary of the findings is now available here. 

 

We are using this feedback to inform the new grounds maintenance contract which, once procured, will come into effect from April 2017. 

 

Background

Cuts to government funding alongside other social pressures – including an ageing population and continual increases in the cost of living – have left the Council with substantial budget pressures.

We have a programme that will deliver £78 million of budget reductions by 2018 to address these pressures. 

 

Our current contract for grounds maintenance is coming to an end in 2017 and we are starting to work on our procurement strategy for the next contract. This presents a great opportunity to reduce costs, whilst at the same time trying to ensure that our green spaces continue to meet the needs of people who live, work and visit the borough.

 

We currently spend £2.5 million on this contract per year and we are exploring all possible ways to reduce this, while continuing to provide quality green spaces across the borough. 

 

Our parks and green spaces

Camden Council has 75 parks and greens spaces across the borough: these range in character from the historic squares of Bloomsbury and former churchyard sites to neighbourhood parks.  Most of our parks are heavily used by the public and many are associated with Friends groups and other community/residents groups.

 

As well as these park spaces, we also manage over 300 green spaces around Camden’s housing estates.  

 

What are the benefits of green spaces?

Green spaces in Camden provide a range of benefits to local residents and visitors, contributing to health and well-being, safe neighbourhoods, tourism and the local economy. They provide places where people can meet, socialise and play, and venues for community celebrations and events. They also perform valuable environmental functions including mitigating the key climate change risks in Camden (such as flooding, drought and air pollution) and providing habitat and foliage to support biodiversity

 

What kind of things does the grounds maintenance service include?

The grounds maintenance service supports the Camden Plan by working with stakeholders to deliver natural, safe and fun parks and open spaces.

 

The grounds maintenance service provides the park keepers, gardeners and playground inspectors, as well as carrying out horticulture tasks, such as grass cutting, leaf & litter collection and hedge cutting, and repairs to infrastructure and play equipment.