CABE Space enabling

Great parks and public space need a committed and skilful approach to their delivery and management. The government has recognised that our green spaces have been under-funded and have suffered from considerable decline over the last 25 years. The aim of the Enabling and Delivery programme, developed with the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister (ODPM) is to work with local authorities and other providers of open space to help improve the quality of their spaces through better planning, design, management and maintenance.

Central to the Enabling and Delivery programme is the CABE Space Advisory Scheme, which was initially outlined in the Government’s Living Places: Safer, Cleaner, Greener document. The scheme operated in three ways:

• direct assistance to local authorities preparing green space strategies for developing and managing their network of parks and green spaces
• training for local authorities preparing their green space strategie
• assistance on individual site-based projects for local authorities and other organisations

West Midlands Authorities receiving support:

• Stoke City Council

• Dudley MBC

• Walsall MBC

CABE Space publications case studies

A guide to producing park and green space management plans - Lickey Hills Country Park

At Lickey Hills, the management team has taken the idea of performance management one step further and has produced an annual performance plan (APMP). In essence, the management plan does not contain a detailed five-year action plan - it has objectives but these are not translated into SMART objectives. The APMP does this and ties work into the corporate objectives (which can change annually - important to remember when updating or revising a plan). This clearly identifies targets, outputs, responsibility and resource and training implications. The plan has defended the site against cuts - and site staff are now consulted on service wide cuts. It has changed the mindset in senior management to allow these staff the autonomy to develop their site.

Greenspace Strategies – a good practice guide - Bridgnorth District Council

Bridgnorth Council’s Open Spaces Strategy was as much about process as product. The strategy development process brought the following benefits:

• All services met around a table for the first time to discuss land management and strategic planning – resulting in a review of Section 106 and land adoption procedures. The project steering group included planning (local plan and development control), cultural services, countryside services, the GIS manager, an elected member, the works department, The County Wildlife Trust and the County Council.

• The strategy was linked to corporate thinking – it informed work on Comprehensive Performance Assessment (CPA) and Best Value. It also fed into the revision of the Local Plan and provided the framework for new Supplementary Planning Guidance on green space.

• It raised awareness of the need for strategic thinking in the parish and town councils (the major land managers in this rural district), by means of consultation, information dissemination and a workshop.
  

• It brought increased revenue funding for the countryside service.
  

A key element was that the authority took a partnership approach to resourcing the strategy, appreciating the input that it needed to fit a short timescale, working alongside consultants. This approach produced much greater ownership of the end result.