PARKS BUDGET UPDATE
In November 2013, the Society submitted a strong case against the Council’s £850,000 savings option which would have meant ceasing beach cleansing, maintenance of 14 local parks, 32 natural and semi-natural green spaces, 44 amenity green spaces, ceasing maintenance of the non-golf and non-football pitch parts of Arrowe Park and closing bowling greens except those at Birkenhead Park.
The local sites where the Council proposed ceasing maintenance were:
LOCAL PARKS
Dawstone Park
Hill House
NATURAL AND SEMI-NATURAL GREEN SPACE
Feather Lane Woodland
Gayton Pinewoods
Poll Hill
The Beacons
AMENITY GREEN SPACE
Riverbank Road Greenspace
BEACHES (cease cleansing)
Gayton Saltmarsh
Heswall Foreshore
BOWLING GREENS
Heswall Hall
Poll Hill
The Council has decided not to go ahead with its £850,000 savings option. However, it will be reducing spending by £450,000 across the Parks and Countryside Service in the coming financial year. This is a substantial reduction on top of the cuts in 2013.
The Council says “Examples of these changes include carrying out less reactive tree pruning but making more use of pre-planned programmes of tree maintenance. We will also be mowing the grass less in quiet corners of some parks and rather than mowing right up to tree bases, will make sculpted mowing lines further away from the trees. This will allow machinery to be used more effectively, help reduce damage to equipment and cut the time taken for mowing. We will also deliver more litter education campaigns to help reduce the staff time taken to pick up litter from parks.”
The Parks and Countryside Department is inviting suggestions regarding the maintenance of your local park, countryside or beach site, which could help to achieve:
- more efficient use of resources
- site benefits, such as creating new wildlife habitat or new community use
- income generation
- save money
March 2014