I feel a sad sense of nostalgia as I walk back from the parks I manage to the office, past that redundant greenhouse, once home to bedding plants that would have been destined for borders this summer.
I linger at the empty staff coat hooks that used to be full. Our parks used to be well resourced, well planned, well loved. Perhaps it was taken for granted.
Park managers like me are a dying breed, an endangered species. During the formative years of my training I would write detailed plans about how to landscape and manage the park. Today I am set the unenviable challenge of having to stop doing things like planning and designing new flowerbeds for the public to enjoy. I have to cut back on the maintenance and litter-picking that ensured the park always looked its finest. I question what my role as a manager really means anymore.
I have seen a career and sector I love brutalised by austerity. Over 92% of park budgets have been cut by local authorities. The pressure is on to spend less and the government is cutting off its support. In 2010 it financed almost 80% of council spending, but that is expected to drop to 16% this year.
I used to get a great deal of job satisfaction working in parks. But now I cut the grass less and I have to grass over borders once brimming with herbaceous perennials and bedding. I spend my time laminating “Closed for repair” signs, ready to affix to the playground gate. I get no satisfaction from any of this. Those signs still hang on that gate and the disappointment is clear across the faces of toddlers and their parents. That park on the doorstep is now beyond reach, unobtainable and perhaps gone for good.
People who work in public parks have been talking about the decline in funding for years. When we are together it’s all we really ever seem to talk about; “How far have you had to go?” Sometimes it’s 20, 40, 60% cuts.
Parks are at the heart of British life, they are part of our cultural heritage and our wellbeing. Yet they have become a Cinderella service, set against competing financial demands.
We in the sector have gone so far already – we have become more efficient, done more for less and with less. The parks are still loved and well-used, but the years of doing less are starting to show in the landscape. The worst really is yet to come.
We should be striving to achieve more and distribute that quality standard to all parks in all cities, towns and villages – especially the communities who need them the most. In city parks all over the country there are neglected playgrounds closed because they can’t be maintained, and children whose only experience of nature is a shabby and unkempt pocket park. It could be so much better. Parks need their managers, and communities need their parks.
There is much innovation in the sector, much passion and commitment. The sector has campaigned for its inquiry – a report from the House of Commons communities and local government committee is published today and affirms that public parks are in crisis. We can’t afford to ignore the problem and the government can’t close the gate on our parks.
This series aims to give a voice to the staff behind the public services that are hit by mounting cuts and rising demand, and so often denigrated by the press, politicians and public. If you would like to write an article for the series, contact kirstie.brewer@theguardian.com
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