Release Date: 05/09/2008
As the summer draws to a close Richmond Council is looking back at year of high achievement for its park service and forward to how it can make its green spaces even better and more popular.
The local authority is asking local people to take part in a consultation during the month of September and give their ideas as to how the service and the borough’s open spaces can improved still further into 2009 and beyond.
Urging local people to take part in the consultation Cllr Martin Elengorn, Cabinet Member for Environment on Richmond Council said:
“We are lucky in this part of London to have some of the finest parks and open spaces in any British city. The council does its best to make the very most of them for local people and visitors alike.That we do so successfully is borne out by recent surveys showing Richmond upon Thames residents are among the most satisfied in the country with the parks in their borough.
“We have said we would put the environment at the heart of everything we do and how we maintain our public open space is critical to this promise. I am very pleased with some of the things we have achieved in the last year; in particular holding on to our two green flags and being awarded a further two.This is the industry standard for excellence in the field.
“However we are not content to rest on our laurels. It is important that we continue to improve our services where we can and we would now like local people’s ideas on how we can do this.
“For this reason we are launching a public consultation.I am asking as many people as possible to take part and let us know how we can make our parks even better.”
The Council’s Customer Satisfaction Survey will be undertaken in September at numerous parks across the borough. Users will be asked about how often they visit, how they rate the standard and what they would like to see improved. The council wants to learn more about the use of the borough’s open spaces, how well it is delivering services and what it can do better.
The Parks improvement programme has seen £3.5million invested to upgrade park facilities over a five year period. Several key projects in the park improvement programme have also been successfully completed this summer. Residents are benefiting from resurfaced paths and benches in North Sheen Recreation Ground; a complete overhaul of the University Boat Marker site at Mortlake; new paths, benches, bins and a sustainable planting scheme at Mortlake Green; and the improvements in the historic gardens at Radnor Gardens in Twickenham as well as many others.