The operational management and maintenance of Bradford District’s Parks and Green Spaces is a service devolved to Area Committees.  The service merged with the Street Cleansing Service in April 2019.

The report of the Strategic Director, Place (Document “S”) seeks to review the activity during the past year and the trends and direction options where available for future service delivery.

Recommended –

That the Bradford West Area Committee welcomes the content of this report and the smooth merger of the operational management and maintenance of Parks and Green Spaces with the Street Cleansing Service, whilst maintaining levels of service.

(David Cansfield - 01274 437026)

The operational management and maintenance of Bradford District’s Parks and Green Spaces was a service devolved to Area Committees. The service merged with the Street Cleansing Service in April 2019.

The report of the Strategic Director, Place (Document “S”) sought to review the activity during the past year and the trends and direction options where available for future service delivery.

The Area Parks and Landscapes Manager was in attendance and with the invitation of the Chair, he proceeded with introducing the report to the committee with an 

extensive and comprehensive detailed glossary of the report, as follows:

·         In April 2019 the management structure of Parks and Green Spaces merged with the Street Cleansing Service. This followed the ‘lift and shift’ of the Parks and Green Spaces operation from Sport and Culture to Neighbourhood and Customer Services in September 2018. There were five Parks and Street Cleansing Managers who reported an Area Coordinator and oversaw the operation of both Parks and Street Cleansing services. The individual staff teams had not yet amalgamated to the same operating locations. However, the intention was to do so and work is currently ongoing with Estates.

·         There were over 188 named parks, playing fields, recreation grounds and pleasure gardens throughout the district. Operation and maintenance of these sites fell to the devolved service via the Area Coordinators and the Parks and Street Cleansing Managers. These sites ranged from district wide destination parks with a wide range of facilities and large sporting hubs, to parks and open spaces provided for local communities.

·         Facilities within these sites included a wide range of buildings and structures, many of which had ‘listed’ status. These included operational depots, lodges, changing rooms, pavilions, cafes, statues, bridges, memorials, walls, gates and fences in addition to lakes, paths, signage and seating.

·         Operation of these sites including the coordination of their use and the direction of development was in collaboration with the ‘Friends Of’ groups. Other user groups include bowling, football, rugby and cricket teams, and regular users such as Park Run, fitness classes, cycle training, and model engineering clubs.

·         The Service booked and facilitated an annual cycle of fun fairs, circuses and band concerts across the district. Also provide venues within the parks and green spaces for over 200 events each year. The events ranged from Friends Of events, and events provided by, or aimed at the local communities, to large events with a district wide appeal.

·         In addition to the operation and maintenance of the Park’s sites the service also oversaw the highway weed spraying contract and provided a grounds maintenance service to the council’s varied estate. This included the civic spaces in town and city centres, roundabouts and urban highway verges, cemeteries, social residential care facilities, libraries, sports centres, museums, public open space and other grassed open spaces. The combined total area of the grass maintained by the service was in excess of 7.5 million square metres; the equivalent of 1043 Wembley Stadium pitches. The service also played a pivotal role in the winter gritting programme.

·         The service operated in committee areas with each area retaining its own staffing profile and budget. Some service delivery across boundaries occurs due to geographic practicalities, skill set and service demand. This enhanced service efficiency. The service operational staff base was 72 gardeners and 21 seasonal workers. Included in the base line were 10 vacancies which were covered with additional seasonal agency staff and tendered contracts for grass cutting operations. Rationalising the area budgets whilst taking into account previous and future budget savings would enable the service to rebase staffing for the following year.

Following the detailed synopsis, a question and answer session ensued:

·         What was the reasons for many overgrown grassed verges?

o   Maintenance standards across the Bradford District reflected the staffing level and previous budget savings. Previous reductions in the service level had included reduction in the maintenance frequency of all grass areas, bowling greens, shrub beds during the mowing season and the reduction of annual floral displays;

·         There were a significant number of litter bins especially in parks that were not being emptied on a more regular and routinely manner?

o   Bradford West had 192 litter bins across its parks and green spaces. Two gardeners rotated around the area emptying bins and litter picking each site weekly. Heavily used sites had an increased frequency to combat peaks in use where resources allowed. It was hoped over time when staff moved together into area depots that closer working operations between parks and cleansing operatives would further improve services; and,

·         Due to the increased usage of parks and green spaces, were any further developments in process for enhancing specific areas?

o   The Lister Park Play Area - replacement of the existing worn out play area with a new Destination Play Area as part of the council’s Playable Spaces Strategy was an ongoing project.

o   A significantly larger development was under consideration for a proposed play area for Bradford forming the largest single site play facility in the council’s emerging Playable Spaces Strategy and Funding Programme.

The Chair welcomed the work undertaken for the success in operational management and maintenance of Bradford District’s Parks and Green Spaces. The committee echoed the praises outlined by the Chair and went further by stating its wish for the progress towards the proposed development for the Lister Park Play Area.

Resolved –

(1)       That the Bradford West Area Committee welcomes the content of        this report and the smooth merger of the operational management           and maintenance of Parks and Green Spaces with the Street     Cleansing Service, whilst maintaining levels of service.

(2)      That following approval of the Budget in February 2020, an update      report be presented to the Bradford West Area Committee to           outline the Plans for “The Lister” Lister Park play area, at the        February 2020 meeting of the Bradford West Area Committee.

ACTION:       Strategic Director, Place