Author Topic: Look what happens when you close down a Parks Department (Read 2420 times)

Geoff Reid · « **Reply #60 on:** January 29, 2012, 12:13:33 PM »

I don't suppose that deliberately making/allowing allotments to become harder and harder to use & cultivate is part of a plan to 'manage' allotments into disuse before being sold off/given away for development would it? I can see the future Adver headline now:

Quote from: Tarquin Shattering-Buttocks - Cabinet member for Floodlit Footy Pitches and Sustainability

"Yah, no one uses council owned allotments any more, it's just one of those things, and that's why we decided to give them all to Kev"

On a parallel note, If we're truly living in an age where 'sustainability' is desirable, and our Council really understands and supports the idea, then why the hell aren't developers required to set aside/construct a certain amount of communal growing areas for every house they build?, and further to that, if £x millions of section 106 money can be siphoned off from North Swindon to pay for all-weather football pitches at the Croft, why aren't similar amounts used to improve existing allotments, construct new ones and identify other bits and pieces of otherwise 'unusable' land for use as micro-allotments/growing spaces?

I'm convinced that 'sustainability' is a growth industry in this regard, albeit small to medium scale, but why aren't the Enterprise works producing raised growing bed and compost bin kits?, why isn't SBC producing, selling and delivering proper compost, screened topsoil and soil improver's to the public? - other authorities manage it.

It doesn't take a genius IQ level to see the social & health benefits of the above, nor a commercial wizard to see that small scale growers have a commercially viable and constructive part to play in the local economy.

Richard Beale · « **Reply #61 on:** January 29, 2012, 12:44:55 PM »

Quote from: Geoff Reid on January 29, 2012, 12:13:33 PM

if £x millions of section 106 money can be siphoned off from North Swindon to pay for all-weather football pitches at the Croft, why aren't similar amounts used to improve existing allotments, construct new ones and identify other bits and pieces of otherwise 'unusable' land for use as micro-allotments/growing spaces?

One could ask why there aren't any allotments within the North Swindon Development, then the section 106 developer contribution could be spent where it was due, not on the otherside of town, which is just about as far from the intended location as you could get.

Jean · « **Reply #62 on:** January 29, 2012, 02:17:17 PM »

The Allotment Act 1950

The result of demands for more and more building land saw the re-establishment of the Allotments Advisory Body which in 1949 recommended a scale of provision of 4 acres per 1,000 head of population. This resulted in the Allotment Act of 1950.

My understanding is that this Act still stands, although I haven't looked to see what changes have taken place.

http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/Geo6/14/31

Jean · « **Reply #63 on:** February 02, 2012, 10:24:58 AM »

Seems that SBC is pretending that all is hunky-dory using terms like "Streetsmart Budget" and "Stronger Together"! And the Rangers are not being made redundant - seems that they don't see it that way as they wouldn't all be looking for other jobs.

http://www.swindonadvertiser.co.uk/news/9508434.Parks_department_shut_down/

Quote

Parks department shut down

9:47am Thursday 2nd February 2012 in News

SWINDON Council’s parks department was abolished yesterday as part of a bid to shave thousands of pounds from the council’s budget.

The changes, which will save £600,000 from the Streetsmart Budget, saw some staff moved into other departments or to Swindon Commercial Services (SCS). This is all part of the council’s Stronger Together, which aims to restructure the council to make it more efficient.

A council spokesman said that despite rumours, Swindon’s park rangers were not made redundant but were instead transferred to form part of SCS’s larger community liaison officer team.

He said he understood there were six rangers, but two got jobs in other parts of the country, so only four were transferred to the new 14-strong team.

The spokesman said they will still do the work of rangers but the team will also be involved in other activities, which will be determined by the council.

Richard Beale · « **Reply #64 on:** February 02, 2012, 11:30:09 AM »

So the question remains..... Just who is left, what are they capable of given no budget and now limited time to take on some ranger functions.

What percentage of the ex-rangers time will be spent looking after the parks and open spaces? As well as looking after roads or litter, which are 'streetsmart' in whichever locality they are based.

Or is the truth that the only governing factor is now the bottom line profit of whichever cobtractor has the grounds maintenance contract.

Richard Symonds · « **Reply #65 on:** February 03, 2012, 12:51:07 AM »

One thing that has been left out of this thread is that Forward or is it backward Swindon have been given a further budget to improve the image of the Borough.

Would you agree that the green spaces of the Town form part of its image so take it away from one hand, the one that creates the reality that is visual and obvious for all to see and replace it with one that is a Superficial Image and Perception created by a Public Relations Organisation.

I know which one will deliver the better value and that is not the one that is all Innovative and Vibrant!!

Tea Boy · « **Reply #66 on:** February 03, 2012, 09:13:08 PM »

A sentence that says it all....

Quote

but the team will also be involved in other activities, which will be determined by the council.

They can't even say what their new jobs are....

When are Swindon Council and the present bunch of incompetents going to decide what a "community liaison officer" is and just what they can look forward to be doing.

Is this madness? Or have I got it wrong?

Bassettina · « **Reply #67 on:** February 04, 2012, 12:21:56 PM »

So there will be far fewer staff, working in a different part of the council with increased time spent on 'other activities'... so how will they "still do the work of the rangers"?

Very sad for Swindon's lovely parks.

Bassettina · « **Reply #68 on:** February 04, 2012, 12:23:08 PM »

BTW, would park users be willing to pay a small parking charge if the proceeds went towards maintaining parks at the highest standards, including having dedicated staff?

Muggins · « **Reply #69 on:** February 04, 2012, 12:51:29 PM »

Would every one be willing to pay extra community charge so the changes would not have to be made in the first place?

No? I think the idea is to move this into the Big Society and the idea is that we will be the ones expected to be out doing it. so we won't be makign a gift of our money, we will be making a gift of our time - see the community engagement thread and recent posting.

Richard Beale · « **Reply #70 on:** February 10, 2012, 08:16:11 PM »

Read the through the adver website today.

Particular distressed about this article.

http://www.swindonadvertiser.co.uk/news/9525508.Ambulance_service_warning_after_boy_falls_in_frozen_pond/

Especially..

Quote

GWAS received a 999 call just before 5pm on Saturday (4 February) reporting a young boy had been playing on a frozen pond and gone through the ice.

A paramedic in a rapid-response vehicle was on scene within five minutes, backed up by an ambulance crew three minutes later. They found the patient was out of the water and had not been fully submerged. Only his hands and legs were wet, but he was therefore very cold – so was wrapped in warm blankets before the ambulance crew took him home.

Paramedic Andy Kingsman who was first on scene said: “Fortunately the lad was none the worse for his ordeal.

"However, if he had fallen fully into the water, it would have made it a serious incident. The temperature of the water could have seen him losing consciousness very quickly and we would have been dealing with a life-threatening situation, possibly fatal.

“Therefore, the strong advice is for children – indeed, anybody – not to be tempted to play on frozen water. The ice is very thin so almost certainly unable to withstand the weight of a person.”

One of the 'services' that the parks dept and the rangers used to do was... putting up warning signs on ponds, luckly it seems as if no one was hurt.

With the usual people now not doing this as part of their daily job in cold weather, Will locality assistants be doing it know? Will they even know it has to be done?

Or is it a case of we will wait until someone is seriously hurt.

the gorgon · « **Reply #71 on:** February 10, 2012, 09:37:02 PM »

To be fair kids were walking on thin ice and falling into ponds even when there were 'danger thin ice' signs and park rangers going about on motorbikes telling us not to go on the ice.

Kids are daft like that.

Muggins · « **Reply #72 on:** February 11, 2012, 08:07:13 AM »

Will locality assistants be doing it know? Will they even know it has to be done?

No and no. I can't see that being part of their job.

True, Gorgon, but I wouldn't want to be responsible for the lack of danger signs when a child does get drowned.

I wonder if vandals are co-operating with the big society and NOT removing signs when they are put up?

Tea Boy · « **Reply #73 on:** February 11, 2012, 08:20:58 AM »

Or stopping kids setting fires, harassing wildlife, trashing parkland, vandalizing facilities...

But then... Kids will be kids

I blame the parents

Muggins · « **Reply #74 on:** February 11, 2012, 08:53:25 AM »

Yes, but let's counter that with the many more decent people who use the open spaces, but unfortunately it's not their personal responsibility to do anything more than report any problems, and that will soon stop if there is no reaction to their report.

Like, I reported 5/6 black bags of rubbish in our local spot in the week, let's see how long it takes to tidy that up - bet it will be a million individual bits by the time it does.

Richard Beale · « **Reply #75 on:** February 28, 2012, 09:01:19 PM »

I see the badgers are at it again...

http://www.swindonadvertiser.co.uk/news/9556343.Grave_concern_as_badgers_tunnel_under_coffins_in_cemetery/

particularly as there aren't any rangers anymore...

Quote

Swindon Council’s ranger department looks after the cemetery, which includes 104 war graves

Perhaps that should read, Swindon Council's locality assistants department looks after cemetries.

Muggins · « **Reply #76 on:** February 29, 2012, 08:17:49 AM »

Yes, I had a moment when I thought, which Ranger? I wonder if their old shirsd are hung up somehwere and when the press wants to talk to one, somneone is designated to lift it off the peg don it and become the 'Borough Ranger Team' for the length of the interview.

I've had a fright this week, when I heard someone local has been given permission to do something that we would not have been allowed to do without some conferring going on.

Do our Locality leads know that they can't just give permission without this consultation? Have they had that consultation (with partners) or not, I could ask, but he's never near his phone, so how the heck do we get in touch?

And I want the conversation NOT and email one.

Jean · « **Reply #77 on:** March 02, 2012, 10:18:18 AM »

Extract from a letter from Cllr Bluh to Justin Tomlinson:

Quote

'I am glad to say that the stories you have heard regarding us closing the Parks Department and sacking the rangers are untrue. I recognise that these services are very important to residents and highly valued. However, we do have a responsibility continually to ensure our services are being delivered in the most effective way possible and are wherever possible responding to the needs of our residents.

The Parks and Ranger services have been part of our StreetSmart services for the past two years. This service has brought together a variety of environmental services that are important to residents such as Street Cleaning, Highways Maintenance, Grounds Maintenance, Refuse and Recycling. We have understood from conversations with our residents that there has been frustration that these services are not joined up in the way they operated and therefore can be perceived as being inefficient and not responding always to issues that are important to residents. The majority of these services are run on our behalf by Swindon Commercial Services and we performance manage their delivery and also continue to deliver some ourselves.

To help us improve the way we deliver these services and also explore a range of ways for our residents, where they want to, to become more involved, we have reviewed our contract with SCS to include all delivery of StreetSmart services. This has involved transferring to SCS those staff who deliver front line StreetSmart services and currently work for SBC. We have worked closely with SCS on restructuring the way they deliver those services for us so that they are focused on our localities and communities. This restructuring will involve a reduction in staff numbers overall, however please be assured that this will not be focused on just one particular group of staff as it will be vital that the staff have a combined range of skills across all the service areas they are delivering as part of StreetSmart.

What a load of

Muggins · « **Reply #78 on:** March 02, 2012, 03:06:28 PM »

Nothing there about all but about two Rangers having left, been made redundant!

And Parks, well........................

??

I totally agree with your sentiment,

but who will Justin beleive?

I feel like I'm living in some parallel town in a parrelle universe.

Because the one I hear about from SBC sure to goodness isn't the one I live in.

Jean · « **Reply #79 on:** March 02, 2012, 04:26:26 PM »

It's like living in George Orwell's 1984, but not quite so bad - yet! Talk about double-speak and double-think.

In essence, Bluh is saying that it's good for people to get rid of the Parks department.

Who does he get to write this old tosh?