What a shame

[park381]

LET Thursday 2nd October

Oswaldtwistle park's £1m lottery bid rejected (From Lancashire Telegraph)

What can you say about that.
I take my hat off to Neil & the friends of Rhyddings Park for saying that they will continue to bid for grants to complete the planned work, which includes improvements to pathways and drainage.

Are repairs to pathways not HBC's responsibility, are the parks not allocated a "maintenance budget"

How much has HBC spent on maintenance in Rhyddings Park over the last 10 years.............not a lot, or should that be nothing at all

Should HBC not be repairing paths and sorting out drainage in the park as an on going maintenance project, or should we say " Planned Maintenance"

What a sad mess Rhyddings Park has become, all because of the lack of maintenance budgets not being spent where they should be.

[garinda]

It is a shame the bid for Lotto money wasn't successful. However the park, and others in the area, used to be maintained to a much higher standard, without the need to go cap in hand as a 'worthy cause'.

The paths aren't just unsightly they are dangerous.

I guess councils of years gone by were better at using money from our rates, which saw well cared for paths, tennis courts, a putting green, two top rate bowling greens, a paddling pool, beautiful flower beds supplied by the park's own green houses, and even paid for the services of a park keeper who chased out those who ventured in after dark.

[AccyLass]

Are there no people to help, I mean volunteer with keeping the park tidy and stuff, obviously not fixing important things that will need doing I just mean helping with the general stuff so money could be spent elsewhere

Obviously I know nothing about the maintenance of the park, I'm just asking

[katex]

Yes, 'tis sad, I don't think Rhyddings is too bad actually, presume you have read the threads on Milnshaw Park ... now that is a dump... hope they obtain the lottery funding they have applied for.

Again, only so much money in the pot for the HBC maintaining these parks ... (without increasing council tax !)

[park381]

All sections of a council have/had a budget for maintenance, and for planned maintenance, be it for adverts, be it for what ever. The Parks section of HBC has/had a budget, both for what they call day/day maintenance and planned maintenance. What have they done with it over the last 25 years

So the question is asked what has the park's budget been spent on, not on the parks.

The decline of Rhyddings Park has been over the last 25 years. Maintenance funds were plentiful in those days.

[AccyLass]

So they are given a 25 yr budget so to speak?

25 yrs before?

Or they have a yearly budget that obviously aint enough cos it hasn't sorted everything?

[park381]

Originally Posted by katex

only so much money in the pot for the HBC maintaining these parks ... (without increasing council tax !)

Kate, we are not talking of the present here we are talking of the last 25 years.
I have watched Rhyddings Park in the decline, living facing the park for 27 years.
Things in local gov. were not as "tight" 25 years ago, councils used to have a "get it spent month" before the end of March. Money would be spent on anything and every thing, but obviously not Rhyddings Park.

[Lilly]

Originally Posted by garinda

I guess councils of years gone by were better at using money from our rates, which saw well cared for paths, tennis courts, a putting green, two top rate bowling greens, a paddling pool, beautiful flower beds supplied by the park's own green houses, and even paid for the services of a park keeper who chased out those who ventured in after dark.

In years gone by parks didn't suffer the trouble they do now.

They now suffer so much vandalism so it seems to me that the reason we don't have the things you mentioned is because it costs too much money to provide these things and then to have to constantly fork out for repairs/replacements due to vandalism.

In this age of the personal injury claim, nothing can be seen to be unsafe or have the potential to cause injury.....so best not put it there in the first place.

That's just my take on it.

[WillowTheWhisp]

Bullough Park is a disgrace too. It's not fit to call a park and the path down to Perth Street is like something from Sleeping Beauty's Castle.

[garinda]

Originally Posted by Lilly

In years gone by parks didn't suffer the trouble they do now.

They now suffer so much vandalism so it seems to me that the reason we don't have the things you mentioned is because it costs too much money to provide these things and then to have to constantly fork out for repairs/replacements due to vandalism.

In this age of the personal injury claim, nothing can be seen to be unsafe or have the potential to cause injury.....so best not put it there in the first place.

That's just my take on it.

Within my not that old a memory the council had a park warden, whose twenty four hour presence deterred vandalism, and those seeking to do mischief, and funded via our rates. Vandalism is nothing new, and is certainly not an excuse for properly maintaining the paths, and draining the playing field.

As for now living in an injury claim culture, the terrible state of the park paths mean that more accidents will happen, and as I believe our council pay out on any claim submittted without defending the action, in the short, as well as long term, it makes very little economic sense, even by H.B.C.'s standards.

[Lilly]

Originally Posted by garinda

Within my not that old a memory the council had a park warden, whose twenty four hour presence deterred vandalism, and those seeking to do mischief, and funded via our rates. Vandalism is nothing new, and is certainly not an excuse for properly maintaining the paths, and draining the playing field.

As for now living in an injury claim culture, the terrible state of the park paths mean that more accidents will happen, and as I believe our council pay out on any claim submittted without defending the action, in the short, as well as long term, it makes very little economic sense, even by H.B.C.'s standards.

I know vandalism is nothing new but it wasn't as bad 50 years ago as it is now.

Nothing's safe these days. Agreed, we could do with a return to the park warden but, as has been discussed on the corporal punishment thread, he would have very little powers these days and would probably be beaten up if he dared to challenge anyone.

[garinda]

Originally Posted by Lilly

I know vandalism is nothing new but it wasn't as bad 50 years ago as it is now.

Nothing's safe these days. Agreed, we could do with a return to the park warden but, as has been discussed on the corporal punishment thread, he would have very little powers these days and would probably be beaten up if he dared to challenge anyone.

The appalling state of the parks, and the withholding of funding that should be used to maintain them, as nothing to do with vandalism. It's about the use of funds, and poor management.

They gave us flower towers, call us a 'Floral Market Town', yet our parks, once filled with beautiful displays of bedding plants, raised by the park's own gardening department, are now bare of flowers except for the odd Dandelion.

[Neil]

Originally Posted by park381

I take my hat off to Neil & the friends of Rhyddings Park for saying that they will continue to bid for grants to complete the planned work, which includes improvements to pathways and drainage.

Thank you for that.
We refuse to sit on our backsides and will be actively seeking other bids on our own. The main lottery bid was in fact made by the Council with us on the project team assisting in every way we could.
The Friends of Rhyddings Park are now applying for funding themselves with HBC assisting us as required with things like suppliers and planning issues. We have our first meeting with an equipment designer/supplier on Tuesday and Gayle is already working on funding application forms. Like I said we are not sat down doing nothing

Originally Posted by park381

Are repairs to pathways not HBC's responsibility, are the parks not allocated a "maintenance budget"

All work in the park is HBC's responsibility. The only odd bit is Pets Corner which is managed by the Friends under the supervision of the Council. It has to be that way as they are responsible for everything in the park.

Originally Posted by park381

How much has HBC spent on maintenance in Rhyddings Park over the last 10 years.............not a lot, or should that be nothing at all

Not enough would be more accurate than not a lot. Because of this long ongoing bid - well over 3 years this time and a previous bid failed 10 years ago (ish), money had not been spent in the park. I do agree to a point that you would not want to spend a lot of money to find a refurbishment program paid for by lottery money undid some of the work you spent money on. Unfortuneatly this has led to the park falling into a very poor state. Lots of work should have been carried out just to keep paths safe etc.

Originally Posted by park381

What a sad mess Rhyddings Park has become, all because of the lack of maintenance budgets not being spent where they should be.

Fair point I think - money was spent elsewhere in the belief that a massive revamp was on its way. This would not have been too bad if the bid process had not dragged on for as long as it has done - still now it is not completed as the bid has been resubmitted for a final time to this particular funding body so we are waiting again. The only difference now is that the Council have agreed to do some of the work that is needed anyway.

Originally Posted by park381

So the question is asked what has the park's budget been spent on, not on the parks.

I believe the parks budget is underfunded both in capital money and in man power.

Originally Posted by park381

The decline of Rhyddings Park has been over the last 25 years. Maintenance funds were plentiful in those days.

I am glad you said that. For many years now previous and current Councils have found themselves cutting the budgets available for our parks. This takes years to show itself as a problem as the parks slowly fell apart. Millions of pounds are needed to restore several parks in Hyndburn to the sort of standard that we all expect. The actual cost of refurbishing Rhyddings Park is well over £2 million. Years of neglect by many Councils have caused it, I hope that the Councils of the next few years can find the money to sort it out.

Originally Posted by Lilly

In years gone by parks didn't suffer the trouble they do now.

They now suffer so much vandalism so it seems to me that the reason we don't have the things you mentioned is because it costs too much money to provide these things and then to have to constantly fork out for repairs/replacements due to vandalism.

Another problem is that the vandalism is not being repaired. The Council have to work with the Police to sort out many of the issues we have in the parks.

Local residents don't help either. I am expecting a lot of resistance ( we have had some already ) about our plans to puts things into Rhyddings park for the secondary school sort of age group. They have nothing to do and no where to go in the park. They end up hanging around in the kiddies play area - many of them started playing in there when it was new and they were in primary school. There is nothing for them to move on to so they stay. They also hang around on the benches around the bowling green which causes problems as well.

Originally Posted by WillowTheWhisp

Bullough Park is a disgrace too. It's not fit to call a park and the path down to Perth Street is like something from Sleeping Beauty's Castle.

In my opinion Hyndburn has too many green spaces to look after with the current size of its parks department. I was very disapointed when they created the new one off Henry Street in Church. Why create a new one when they can't afford to look after what they have? I am sure it was funded from some grant or another but when that ends HBC will have to pay to maintain it.

Maybe Accrington should loose one of its parks, it has several while Oswaldtwistle only has one park yet has half the population of Accrington. The park is also close to the towns border with Spring Hill so attracts a lot of visitors from that area of Accrington as well.

One interesting figure I have just pulled out of the bid is that the population within a 1km catchment area of the park is over 14,000.

[garinda]

By the way, I'm not having a go at the Friends of Rhyddings Park, I think they're doing a great job. I just think the council were wrong withholding funding for essential maintenance, in the hope of perhaps securing funding from the Lottery.

Pie in the sky.

[Neil]

Originally Posted by garinda

I just think the council were wrong withholding funding for essential maintenance, in the hope of perhaps securing funding from the Lottery.

So do I for essential works.