Communities and Local Government
A selection of images representing communities.
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Town and Country Parks
1.The Government welcomes the Committee's report on Town and Country Parks, and is grateful for its thorough consideration of the wide range of evidence. In the words of John Ruskin, we believe that: "the measure of any great civilisation is its cities, and the measure of any city's greatness is to be found in the quality of its public spaces, its parks and its squares".
2.Many of our parks, particularly municipal parks, were created in order to provide a public amenity especially in our heavily built-up industrial towns and deprived areas. They were created in order to improve public health and well being by providing green spaces where people could get clean air and exercise. We believe parks and open spaces are as important a recreational resource today as they were when they were created. They are vital for enhancing the quality of life for people and the character of our communities, and play an important role in the health and enjoyment of people in urban areas. We believe that people should, therefore, have access to such spaces close to where they live, and we attach a high importance to their retention. We fully appreciate the Committees' concerns about the quality and future of our parks.
3.The Government is committed to making our urban areas more attractive places where people will choose to live, and plan to publish a White Paper on urban policy later in the year.We also plan to publish a companion Rural White Paper. The White Paper on urban policy will set out our vision for achieving more inclusive, sustainable communities which offer more attractive living and working environments. It will explain how the Government is pursuing a range of policies which build on the work of the UK Sustainable Development Strategy, Urban Task Force, Social Exclusion Unit, and the programmes of other Government departments, to improve the quality of life of people who live in our cities and towns. Improving the quality of urban environments and the role of our parks and open spaces will be an important consideration in developing the White Paper.
4.The Government is also revising planning guidance on sports and recreation, set out in Planning Policy Guidance note 17 (PPG17). The revised guidance will:
- affirm the Government's commitment to good quality, well-managed parks and open spaces, and their important role in improving the quality of life for all;
- provide clearer advice on preparing development plan policies to ensure that the recreational needs of local communities (including playing fields, parks and open spaces) are taken into account in planning the development of their areas; and
- encourage a more strategic approach to protecting existing recreational provision, which stresses the importance of identifying areas where there are deficiencies and provides advice on how planning policies can enhance provision where it is most needed.
The Government will shortly issue a draft of the revised PPG17 for public consultation.
Country parks
We welcome the Countryside Agency's continued commitment to country parks, but believe that a financial commitment is required in order to make its leadership effective. We therefore recommend that the Countryside Agency reviews its present allocation of resources to country parks and specifically considers offering grants towards the repairs which are now becoming necessary. In addition to the production of best practice guidance, we want to see the Agency keep the subject under annual or continuing review (paragraph 22).
5.The Government notes the Committee's recommendation. The Countryside Agency recognises that town and country parks provide an important source of green space for people living nearby and for visitors. The Agency is currently reviewing its strategy and will consider the Select Committees' recommendations in the context of the review and alongside decisions on future priorities.
The information deficit
We believe it is essential that adequate research should be undertaken, and accurate records kept, of matters such as whether the amount of park, parkland and urban greenspace has increased or decreased over the last 30 years, what are the cost implications of maintaining this land, and whether attractive low cost regimes (such as local or volunteer help) can be used to look after some of this land, whilst still retaining its value as a recreational resource (paragraph 29).
We expect the Government to come up with an effective research programme for parks as part of its Urban White Paper. The Committee is also of the view that all local authorities ought to know the extent of their parks in terms of their number, size, attributes and facilities. By means of a regular and statistically valid evaluation of their parks, local authorities should estimate visitor numbers, and know something of who they are and what they think of their parks. By these means, a national total of number of parks can be arrived at and comparisons made (paragraph 30).
6.The Government agrees with the Committee on the need to improve the quality of information and data about our parks and open spaces in urban areas. Adequate information about the quantity and quality of parks and the way in which they are used, is essential to making informed decisions about their maintenance and funding options. However, as the Committee indicates, prevailing difficulties stem form inconsistencies between the results of various surveys and the methods used to define and collect information. Local authorities do, as a general rule, maintain data on parks and open spaces, for example, for the purposes of drawing up management contracts under CCT and Best Value performance management. We accept that the extent of this information is, however, unclear and may not be adequately co-ordinated and disseminated.
7.The Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF), Department of the Environment, Transport and the Regions (DETR) and English Heritage are jointly funding a survey of parks and historic parks and gardens. The survey aims to establish the extent, diversity, conditions and costs of maintenance of public parks. It will cover over 450 local authorities to provide general information on all parks, with more detailed information on individual historic parks. The data will be held on a database that will provide up-to-date information, which has previously been unavailable. It will, therefore, help give a better overall picture of the number and condition of parks nationwide and help to identify gaps in available information and inform research options.
8.The Government will consider further the Committee's recommendation for research, taking into account emerging results from the HLF survey, as we develop the urban environment aspects of our White Paper on urban policies.
The importance of parks and open spaces in urban areas
We believe that parks are key features in the renaissance of our urban areas. They have been instrumental in the regeneration of New York, Barcelona and Paris. They need to be recognised and resourced as such by central and local government. In addition, the Social Exclusion Unit should give a high priority to making parks attractive places where all the community can enjoy themselves (paragraph 56).
9.The Government wholeheartedly agrees that parks and open spaces are key features of the kind of urban renaissance and sustainable communities we want to create - socially inclusive places where people have easy access to the services and facilities they need.
We believe that municipal parks should retain their integrity and historic character. However, if they are to have an exciting future, larger parks should seek to regain their function as places for entertainment and formal and informal games. City farms and wildlife areas also have an important role to play in our towns, especially in the educational sphere. They need to be looked after and developed alongside municipal parks (paragraph 77).
10.The Government agrees. We recognise the important educational, recreational and health benefits of regular contact with the natural environment, such as provided by city farms and wildlife areas. We will continue to support initiatives which promote the 'greening' of our towns and cities in these ways.
Managing and maintaining parks and open spaces
Urgent action is needed to find effective ways of stopping the loss and neglect of park ornaments and ornamental buildings (paragraph 92).
11.The Government notes the Committee's recommendation in respect of park ornaments and buildings. The DETR will consider the issues raised further in conjunction with the Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS), English Heritage, the Local Government Association (LGA) and other interested parties.
Making parks safe, and making them feel safe, must be a priority for local authorities. Plans for park safety should be included in all local authority Crime and Disorder Strategies (paragraph 97).
12.The Government agrees that making parks safe, and making them feel safe, should be a priority for local authorities in their management of parks. Section 17 of the Crime and Disorder Act 1998 requires local authorities to take crime reduction into consideration in all of their functions. Local authorities should, therefore, explicitly bear in mind crime reduction and safety when fulfilling their responsibilities for the management of parks and public spaces.
13.The Government does not specify what categories of crime should be included in crime and disorder strategies, which are designed to reflect local priorities and the concerns of local residents. The Act requires the partnerships of local authorities, police and the voluntary sector to base their strategies on a detailed audit of crime and disorder in their area. Local residents should be consulted closely on this audit. Once priority problems have been identified, the partnership should devise a strategy to tackle them.
If the decline of parks is to be arrested and reversed it is essential that there should be sufficient high quality staff. We believe this is an area the Local Government Association ought to be looking at urgently, and which ultimately ought to be dealt with by a National Agency (paragraph 113).
14.The Government agrees that it is important for local authorities to have staff with the right skills for maintaining and managing parks and open spaces. English Heritage has been actively involved in reviving GARLAND, an industry-led working group, aimed at addressing the education and training needs of staff available to work in the sector. Proposals, which emerge from the group, must be fed into 'Lantra' the major government recognised vocational training organisation for land-based industries. Lantra is currently upgrading its existing skills based training and qualifications in this area. The DETR will liase closely with the Department for Education and Employment, DCMS and English Heritage via this forum, and engage with the LGA to explore skills issues.
15.The Government also encourages the participation of local communities in the running of local parks, and is committed to building the capacity of local people to become involved in urban environmental initiatives. Such participation will provide both environmental benefits and help to develop the skills of local people. The Government will also wish to consider the work and findings of the National Skills Task Force and the report of the Social Exclusion Unit's policy action team on skills (PAT4). The Government will consider any proposals which emerge, in developing the environmental regeneration aspects of the White Paper on urban policies.
16.The Committee's recommendation in respect of the setting up of a national agency is dealt with in a later section of this Response.
In our report on Local Government Finance we made a series of recommendations about enabling local councils to raise a larger proportion of their own revenues rather than depending on Government grants. If, however, the Government is determined not to increase local fund-raising powers, when determining grants to local authorities it must take more account of the number and size of public parks that have to be maintained (paragraph 117).
17.The Government's response to the Committee's report on 'Local Government Finance' (Cnmd 4402) explained why it did not accept the recommendation that less local authority funding should be in the form of Government grants. The Government does not accept that the Committee's proposal would enhance local government's accountability to local voters.
18.Local authorities allocate their resources according to their local circumstances and priorities. The Government provides most of its financial support to local authorities in the form of general grants which are not tied to particular expenditures or activities. We have provided substantial real increases in grants over the period of the Comprehensive Spending Review and a stable distribution of funds. We have also abolished crude and universal capping. Local authorities are now better funded, and have a stable financial environment within which to make local choices about how they prioritise their spending. For the future, the Government is looking for a new way to distribute central funding which is simpler, more stable, more robust and fairer than at present. It is encouraging local government, and others with an interest, to put forward proposals before it publishes a consultation paper in the summer of 2000.
Dog walking gives pleasure to many people and need not be a problem to other people if parks have bins for dog excrement, regular patrols by park staff, and a good education about the problems (paragraph 122).
19.Local authorities can adopt measures, byelaws for example, which strike a balance between those who wish to use public areas which are free from dogs and those who wish to take their dogs with them. There is no requirement for local authorities to provide bins specifically for the purpose of disposal of dog waste. If they are provided, it is for the authority to ensure that they are emptied on a regular basis. The Government recognises that positive action in public education is important and the DETR has produced leaflets on responsible dog ownership and on cleaning up after your dog. The DETR looks to the Tidy Britain Group, which is grant aided by the Department, to help share good practice and encourage local authorities to take action.
We are appalled by English Heritage's neglect of parks and other designed landscapes. Its expenditure and commitment of staff have been derisory. English Heritage must take its responsibility for parks much more seriously. It ought to survey all municipal parks over 30 years old to see if they ought to be included on its register, and make public the reasons for inclusion or exclusion. Once an agency has been established, it should take over responsibility for the register. We intend to consider this issue further during this Parliament (paragraph 127).
20.The Government notes the Committee's concerns, and its intention to consider the issues further. We will await the Committee's consideration.
21.It seems likely that there are about 5,000 public parks in the UK as a whole. Of these, 162 are included on English Heritage's Register of Parks and Gardens, perhaps around 4 per cent of the total in England. This compares with around 3 per cent of the total building stock that is listed. There are large numbers of buildings, parks and gardens that do not meet national criteria but are nevertheless of local historic significance. Many are included in designated conservation areas. The criteria under which English Heritage is consulted about planning permissions affecting listed buildings (principally, those affecting Grade 1 and II* buildings) are identical to those that apply to registered landscapes. Buildings and landscape are also eligible for English Heritage grant on a similar basis. The Government considers it important to establish and maintain consistent national criteria for listing and registration, and is satisfied with the existing criteria and the way in which they are being applied.
22.English Heritage's involvement in current work to improve the information base on parks is discussed at paragraph 7 of this Response. The Committee's recommendation in respect of the setting up of a national agency is dealt with in a later section of this Response.
A substantial amount of the New Opportunity Funds should be spent on parks. The funds should go to small local parks as well as to major parks (paragraph 133).
23.The New Opportunities Fund (NOF) has established the Green Spaces and Sustainable Communities programme. This programme is designed to help urban and rural communities understand, improve or care for their environment by creating, preserving, improving or promoting access to green spaces of educational, recreational or environmental value to their community. £97 million has been allocated for green spaces and sustainable communities' projects in England, to fund:
- projects aimed at creating and improving green spaces of importance to communities, including the re-use of derelict land or land acquisition, and may involve projects designed to provide opportunities for children's play, organised and informal sport, playing fields, parks and access to the countryside; and
- projects that improve the local environment and also engage and strengthen communities by building community skills.
24.It would be possible, therefore, for NOF to provide funding for large or small parks under the terms of its Policy Directions. NOF is currently consulting on the ways in which its Green Spaces and Sustainable Communities programme will be implemented. The Government will consider the Committee's recommendation further over the months ahead in conjunction with NOF.
Green Flag Awards and 'Friends' schemes
We believe that all involved in setting up and running the Green Flag scheme for parks are to be congratulated. Its functions should, in due course, be co-ordinated with the work of a national agency (paragraph 140).
25.The Government agrees that those involved in the Green Flag scheme should be congratulated for the valuable incentive they provide to encouraging good environmental practice and park management. The Committee's recommendation in respect of the setting up of a national agency is dealt with in a later section of this Response.
Councils need to look very carefully at the way standalone Trusts are established for the maintenance and management of parks, and be certain they understand the needs for insurance, proper accounting and auditing, and are clear on ethical issues such as jobbery (paragraph 146).
We also believe the present funding pressures are unduly influencing some 'Friends' groups to take on roles which are more onerous than they would wish (paragraph 147).
26.The Government notes the Committees' recommendations in respect of standalone Trusts and 'Friends' groups. We will consider further the issues raised in conjunction with the LGA and in consultation with other interested parties.
The role of local authorities in providing and protecting parks
We see no point in legislating for a statutory duty to provide and maintain parks, nor to give statutory protection to parks (paragraph 149).
The Committee believes that the number and quality of parks, and the amount of money expended on them, must be matters for local decision (paragraph 151).
27.The Government welcomes the Committees' recommendations, which reflect our commitment to enabling decisions which affect local people to be made at the local level.
"Best Value"
We expect the Local Government Association to give a clear lead on how local park strategies will work under Best Value. They also need to lead on local involvement and devise means whereby local users can easily understand strategic documents and be able to compare the parks in one authority with those in another authority (paragraph 161).
28.The Government notes the Committees' recommendation. We appreciate the need to ensure that parks services are adequately represented in the Best Value Performance Indicators (BVPIs), and that clear advice is provided to local authorities on how they should work under Best Value.
29.The Best Value regime was established by the Local Government Act 1999 and comes into effect from 1 April 2000. It requires local authorities to secure continuous improvement in the way in which they exercise their functions. Best Value includes a performance management framework designed to allow local citizens to assess the performance of their local authorities and to enable authorities to improve their own performance more effectively. It requires Best Value authorities to review all their functions and reflect the outcomes in annual 'Best Value performance plans', underpinned by a national suite of performance indicators. Each year the Government will specify a suite of BVPIs which relevant local authorities must report against annually.
30.It is essential that any BVPIs which are specified are sensible and deliverable measures of local services. The Government completed consultation on the first proposed BVPIs at the beginning of November and will shortly publish the substantive BVPIs for 2000/2001. The proposed set of BVPIs included measures of residents' satisfaction with cultural services, spend on cultural and recreational facilities and the development of local strategies to cover cultural and recreational services. All these BVPIs would take in to account parks provision.
31.The Government will consider with the relevant interests over the coming months the potential for refining BVPIs in the 2001/2002 suite to relate them to parks provision in a more specific way. The Government will also work closely with the DCMS, LGA and other relevant interests to consider the extent to which the guidance on Best Value is understood by local authorities and whether there is a need for further clarification in respect of parks services.
In implementing Best Value, we expect all local authorities to have a Master Plan for parks and greenspace and to ensure that local people, as well as members of the Council, have easy access to a regularly updated version of it. Local authorities should use the Master Plan to show how their parks address the many cross-cutting issues which both Government and the Local Government Association are promoting such as sustainable development, life long learning, crime and disorder and social exclusion. The public should also have easy access to detailed plans for each park or small group of greenspaces and know what budget is allocated to each one. Any nationally set Government service indicators should also take this into account (paragraph 165).
32.The DCMS has produced draft guidance to encourage local authorities to develop Local Cultural Strategies aimed at a greater degree of integration and coherence for all cultural services and at raising their profile. Such strategies will enable a local authority to express its own cultural vision and priorities in response to the needs and aspirations of local communities. Local Cultural Strategies will provide a strategic overview recognising the role of cultural services in tackling the wider objectives of social inclusion, health, regeneration, community safety and life-long learning. Parks and open spaces are included within the Guidance's scope of culture and, therefore, come within the framework of the strategy.
33.The Local Cultural Strategy should also provide a framework within which Best Value Reviews take place. It will provide a framework for the various elements of the service focusing on the strategic choices and setting overall performance measurements and assessments. The vision, values, policies and strategic priorities of the Local Cultural Strategy should provide a framework within which individual service strategies will be developed for their particular sector. Individual Service Plans should then focus on operational matters, specific initiatives and detailed outputs, outcomes and targets. Within this framework there is scope for local authorities to develop Service Plans for parks and open spaces.
It is the Committee's intention to look at the work of the Audit Commission in the near future. However, we have to note here that it has not been effective in monitoring parks. We find it astonishing that the Commission does not know how many people use parks, and therefore cannot even start to answer the questions about value for money. Interestingly, it did not feel it had any evidence to submit to this Inquiry (paragraph 166).
In monitoring Best Value we expect the Audit Commission to look at the quality of local information and decision-making process, as well as customer-use and satisfaction of parks (paragraph 167).
34.The Audit Commission has been developing and piloting Best Value methodology alongside working to develop a robust dataset. In part this will arise from authorities' own Parks Best Value Reviews which are collected by the Commission. The outcomes from inspections will also inform the Commission's priorities in respect of value-for-money studies. A positive output from this work will be a "good practice" database, which can be shared and networked by local authorities. This should act as a further catalyst for continuous improvement.
35.In developing this work and inspections, the Commission has emphasised the importance of good quality information in decision-making, and the citizen's ability to exercise influence over the way in which resources are used and contribute to an authority's programme for continuous improvement.
36.The Government notes the Committee's intention to look at the work of the Audit Commission in the near future. We will await the outcome of its considerations.
Urban Parks and Greenspaces Agency
We believe that there is a good case for the establishment of a new Agency, which should be known as 'The Urban Parks and Greenspaces Agency.' We believe the Government should make a commitment to such an Agency in its forthcoming Urban White Paper (paragraph 175).
The first stage should be a government announcement in its urban white paper heralding the establishment of an Urban Parks and Greenspaces Agency. The second stage would be to produce a report. The third stage would be that the Government then establishes the Agency, taking into account the Review Committee Report (paragraph 178).
We do not believe primary legislation should, or needs to, set out details of how an Agency would work. In legislation during the coming session, the Government should take powers to establish the principle. Once the Review Committee has produced a report, the Agency could be established using regulation conferred by that legislation. We believe an evolutionary approach such as this is essential because parks need help now (paragraph 180).
37.The Government is grateful for the Committee's thorough consideration of the evidence and issues, and acknowledges its recommendation for the setting up of a new Agency. However, the Government is not convinced that there is a compelling case for setting up a new agency. We are not persuaded that such an Agency would necessarily be the only or the best way forward to tackle the concerns raised in the Committee's report.
38.The Committee has identified a number of aspects of park management where it considers that action should be taken. We agree with the Committee that some functions of parks provision and management should be improved, and we have set out in this Response some action which will help to do this. We will consider these functions further, and any new arguments in respect of the need for a national agency, in developing the White Paper on urban policies.
Conclusions
We call on the Chancellor of the Exchequer, when looking at any new green tax designed to change people's patterns of consumption, to consider earmarking a substantial sum so that a major investment can take place in our parks. Such a programme would also offer good employment and training opportunities (paragraph 184).
39.The Government notes the Committee's recommendation. The Chancellor of the Exchequer has affirmed in his recent Pre-Budget Report that in building on the recommendations of Lord Roger's Urban Task Force, the Government will give consideration to the merits of using fiscal instruments to support sustainable development of our towns and cities.
40.The Government will consider using the tax system to deliver environmental benefits on a case by case basis, taking account of its wider economic and social objectives. Taxation will often be most effective in tackling environmental problems when introduced as part of a package of policies - trading, local charging, public spending, regulation and education all have a role to play. Final decisions on taxation are, of course, a matter for the Chancellor.
While we do not believe in earmarking government finance to local authorities, we do believe the Government ought to help local authorities find ways to reverse cutbacks in park maintenance. It should recognise:
- that the amount of greenspace most local authorities have to manage has increased very substantially in the last 30 years;
- that funding has not kept pace with these increased needs;
- that if our urban areas are to be attractive places, parks and greenspaces must be well maintained; and
- that since an increasing proportion of the population will be living in towns and cities, parks will become even more Important (paragraph 185).
41. The Government agrees with the Committee that the earmarking of government finance to local authorities should be avoided. This complements our approach of allowing local authorities to decide for themselves how they allocate their resource, taking into account their local circumstances and priorities. The Government also wholeheartedly agrees that well maintained parks and open spaces are essential to improving the quality of living and working environments, and to making our urban areas attractive places where people will choose to live. They are vital elements of the urban renaissance we want to create.
42.As indicated at paragraph 5 of this Response, the Government agrees with the Committee about the basic problem of an information deficit. The Government believes that the need for clearer information about the amount, quality and use of our parks and open spaces, and the ways in which they are resourced is a first step in providing local authorities with a better basis for making informed decisions about the maintenance of parks and funding options. We have set out some proposals in this Response, which will help address this deficit. We will also consider the issue further, and this recommendation in developing our White Paper on urban policies, and in setting out policies on recreation and open spaces in our revision of PPG17.
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