Agenda item

This report provides an update to the Committee on the results of the annual Parks Satisfaction Survey via the council’s ‘Have you Say’ platform. The report outlines the key results and the next steps towards bringing forward a Parks Improvement Plan to a future cycle of the Committee.

Simon Ingyon, Assistant Director, Parks, and Leisure, gave a presentation on the results of the annual Parks Satisfaction Survey via the council’s ‘Have Your Say’ platform. The presentation outlined the key results and the next steps towards bringing forward a Parks Improvement Plan to a future cycle of the Committee.

The presentation drew attention to the following:

• An overview of the Parks survey, when it was conducted, its duration, the number of responses received, and the parks included.
• The key findings:

1.    Overall Satisfaction: 86.3% (up from 69% in 2023)

2.    Maintenance Satisfaction: 83% (up from 61% in 2023)

3.    Safety: 65.7% (down from 73% in 2023)

4.    Cleanliness: 80% (up from 67% in 2023)

5.    Quality: 81% satisfaction

• The frequency of visits: travel mode and reasons for visiting parks.
• Themes including: desired improvements, park features and facilities, accessibility / signage and infrastructure.
• Details of future actions.

The Chair thanked Simon Ingyon for his presentation and congratulated officers on the increased satisfaction levels with parks.

Councillor Adam Peter Lang commented on the variety of green and open spaces within the borough and highlighted how important it was that the Council maintained and continued to improve the facilities in parks. He then raised a number of issues including toilet facilities, the importance and value of litter-picking and the need for good and appropriate lighting (in parks). Further points included the need to ensure parks were as accessible as possible, (as many residents did not have an outdoor space or garden of their own) and also the topic of anti-social behaviour. While Councillor Adam Peter Lang commended the work of the Law Enforcement Team (LET); he suggested there was more that the Council could do on this front. He also mentioned the actions of some volunteer groups in Ravenscourt Park working in the boundaries of the park and highlighted this should be encouraged to bring about improvements in other parks.

In response, Simon Ingyon confirmed that as part of the social value of the IdVerde contract, they were meant to utilise a considerable number of volunteering hours in the borough’s parks and open spaces to supplement and support the core contract they were employed to deliver. He explained that, as part of this process, IdVerde did use corporate volunteers and other community groups who conducted weekly or monthly litter-picks. Simon Ingyon also confirmed that the Community Payback Team were also deployed to ensure they were carrying out some manual work in parks and open spaces with activities such as painting railings and scrubbing them down, litter picking or clearing areas to ensure that people could enjoy them more.

With regards to anti-social behaviour, Simon Ingyon agreed that much of this was

perception, as the visitor data showed that of all those persons who visited or went through Parks day in day out, only a small percentage experienced anti-social behaviour. However, if you were to witness an incident this could colour someone’s judgement about parks overall. Simon Ingyon confirmed more could be done in terms of demonstrating how many hours the LET were active in parks and open spaces.

In relation to lighting, it was noted that Parks and Open Spaces were responsible for about 700 columns, and they were currently working with the Highways Team to evaluate these and update them to LEDs which were more cost effective. Simon Ingyon highlighted the compromise which needed to be struck in lighting parks in terms of public safety  / the use of well-lit sports facilities, as well as the competing needs of the local ecology. Turning to litter picking, Simon Ingyon highlighted that in addition to

the volunteering work and also the work of the Council’s contractors, there were National campaigns run by Keep Britain Tidy Britian who also ran the Green Flag standard. It was noted that the Council currently had 21 Green Flags for its parks and open spaces and there was a commitment to increasing this number in future. Finally, with regards to toilets, officers acknowledged that they were one of the most requested amenities, especially if there was an aim to encourage people to use parks for longer than an hour. Simon Ingyon confirmed that the Council was looking to work with other providers, such as local cafes to increase access to toilet facilities. The Committee noted that providing toilets was not cheap to operate, manage and maintain and the Council was being proactive about finding other ways of providing these, such as signposting to where toilet schemes were located.

In relation to the Parks Survey consultation, Councillor Jackie Borland asked why this had been conducted in the middle of summer holidays when people were either away or were busy with children. She suggested that in future, an alternative time might be

September, as people would have just spent the summer months using parks and open spaces. She noted that it was disappointing the survey had found people felt less safe in Parks and suggested there was an opportunity to improve lighting in some parks to help people feel safer.

Turning to the usage of Parks, Councillor Jackie Borland commented that resident emails / feedback suggested that residents would like to see less events in parks generally.

In response, Simon Ingyon confirmed that the Parks Satisfaction Survey was launched when it was, to coincide with National Parks Week, which was the last week in July as officers thought this might raise the profile of the survey. As well as outlining the timeframe of the survey, he highlighted that the Council also used multiple e-newsletter updates and follow ups. In relation to events, Simon Ingyon confirmed that a specific question around events was not asked in the survey, and attending events in parks was a popular reason for going. However, it was challenging to manage and maintain parks to high standards, and events alongside Sports income was one of the ways that officers helped supplement budgets that were largely expenditure based.

With regards to lighting, he confirmed it was striking a balance between safety and addressing ecological considerations and there was a need to ensure that all current lighting was updated and upgraded.

Councillor Ashok Patel echoed the Committee’s concerns about safety and, in particular, using Eel Brook Common. He suggested there should be provision for a park warden, as well as for this to be augmented by more CCTV coverage in certain locations. Turning to the survey results, Councillor Ashok Patel noted that the feedback was mainly from white backgrounds and there was only one response from an Asian British background and one response from black British background was received. He also noted that the demographic data showed that parks were less attractive to young people. And finally, he asked what was being done to encourage local schools to use parks.

In relation to the demographics of the people that responded to the questionnaire, Simon Ingyon confirmed that further engagement with young people was required. He explained that the survey did not tell the Council who was actually going to parks, but rather those residents which had the inclination to answer the satisfaction survey. If young people had not fed into the survey, then the Council needed to find other ways of engaging with young people, such as through the Youth Council, to ensure that parks and open spaces remained popular and visited by them. This point also rang true on Councillor Patel’s comments on diversity to ensure that everyone was encouraged to complete the satisfaction survey. Simon Ingyon commented, nationally  Asian populations did not visit parks and open spaces as much and more work was required to understand why this group was not engaging with the Council. With regards to the proposal to introduce a night-time parks warden, Simon Ingyon confirmed that this was the role of LET as well as their wider responsibilities. It was a question of whether Parks and Leisure could work with the LET to ensure their night teams were targeting those very popular commuter routes, such as Eel Brook Common, so residents saw a presence there in the evening and felt more reassured.

In relation to the point about schools, Simon Ingyon confirmed that the survey was targeted at individuals rather than specific stakeholders which paid to use or hire park facilities. He provided details of the Tiny Forest initiative, use of woodland areas and outdoor classrooms, so that children had the opportunity to learn about nature, as many schools in the borough did not have natural areas within their own school footprints because of their location in an inner London Borough.

Councillor Liz Collins highlighted that a few residents had contacted her about the small playgrounds in Ravenscourt Park and said these were not well maintained. She also felt that there needed to be additional communications so that people knew how they could use the park and what was interesting about it. She also highlighted the issue of female safety in certain green spaces such as Eel Brook Common.

In response, Simon Ingyon explained that officers were aware that the playgrounds in some of the parks and open spaces did not meet the standards the Council aspired to, which was why a detailed review of all the boroughs playgrounds in the thirty-five Parks or Open Spaces was being conducted. Officers would bring back an improvement plan to the committee in due course. It was noted that four inspections a year were carried out and officers had increased the maintenance costs for parks and open spaces. In relation to the safety concerns, Simon Ingyon echoed the points made in response to Councillor Patel. He also highlighted that there was some finance available from the Improvement Budget to look at the LED lighting to ensure areas had the right Lux levels so that people hopefully felt safer.

The Chair, Councillor Rory Vaughan, explained that one of the complaints he had heard and also observed was the late locking of Ravenscourt Park which had safety implications. He asked for this to be checked with the LET. In terms of infrastructure in parks, he confirmed that he supported the idea of more water fountains in parks, as well as encouraging residents to use refillable bottles. He commended the redevelopment of Hammersmith Park in terms of the basketball court, tennis courts and outdoor gym and hoped other parks could be upgraded. Councillor Rory Vaughan asked how well outside gyms were used as the survey had requested more of them.

In terms of parks signage, Councillor Rory Vaughan noted this had been upgraded and now gave pertinent information about individual parks. With regards to bio-diversity, he commented that while this worked well in most cases, there was a recent trend of grounds maintenance staff mowing over newly emerging crocuses and asked that springtime mowing could be integrated within future contracts to avoid this from reoccurring. With regards to activities in parks, the Chair highlighted the increased popularity of padel tennis and asked officers to explore ways of increasing the number of public courts.

In response, Simon Ingyon confirmed that the point about the locking time of parks would be raised with Parks regular meetings with the Law Enforcement Team (LET). He explained that locking times remained somewhat fluid in the evenings as this depended on where their resources were being drawn, but appreciated that if parks were left open too long then this might cause further instances for them to report. Moving forwards, he commented that there were opportunities to improve the signage in the popular parks, as well as on the information available on the website. He explained that at present, the Council only had detailed information on about ten parks and this needed to be increased to cover all the green flags initially, before moving on to the remaining sites.

In relation to drinking fountains, Simon Ingyon confirmed that the standard one that the Council provided now included a water bottle filler. Dog bowls were also provided. Simon Ingyon explained that officers did not have detailed feedback on the new outdoor gym in Hammersmith Park at this stage, but there had been no negative feedback since its installation and it appeared to be popular and well used. Outdoor Gyms were also being used to help dissuade or move on antisocial behaviour in some parks and open spaces because they brought a number of different users to the site.

With regards to biodiversity, Simon Ingyon assured the Committee that officers were aware flora and fauna needed to last its life cycle so that bees, butterflies and other fertilising insects were supported. He confirmed that officers were in the process of

conducting a detailed review of paddle opportunities in the borough, and he explained that the Lawn Tennis Association (LTA) had just launched their own padel strategy which included increasing the current 300 courts nationwide to 3,000 in the next 5 to 10 years. He explained the reasons why padel tennis was so popular and provided details of the partnerships working across borough to increase its uptake.

Closing the item, Councillor Rory Vaughan was encouraged by the response to the Parks Satisfaction Survey. He underlined the need to improve public safety through better lighting and increased CCTV. He noted the point which had been made about the diversity of the response and the need to capture everyone’s views going forwards. The initiatives to increase access to public toilets, encourage volunteering, especially corporate volunteering and work to promote sports and physical activity were welcomed. The Committee looked forward to a further update in the next 6 to12 months.

Resolved –

That the Committee to note and comment on the report.