10 Steps to a Great Park

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Commitment</B> from stakeholders to create and adopt strong policies and strategies</div> <bR> <div> <B>2. Great Design</B></div> <bR> <div> <B>3. High quality build</B></div> <bR> <div> <B>4</B>. Interesting and appropriate `<B>human facilities</B>'</div> <bR> <div> <B>5</B>. Extensive and appropriate <B>marketing</B></div> <bR> <div> <B>6. High quality maintenance</B></div> <bR> <div> <B>7. Great strategic and day to day management</B></div> <bR> <div> <B>8</B>. Sufficient and sustainable <B>resources</B></div> <bR> <div> <B>9. Protection</B> and respect</div> <bR> <div> <B>10</B>. Continual <B>challenge and review</B></div> <bR> <bR> <div> <U>1. Commitment from stakeholders to create and adopt strong policies and strategies</U></div> <bR> <div> Without commitment from all stakeholders a park will never be as great as it might be.  </div> <bR> <div> <U>2. Great Design</U></div> <bR> <div> Too many of our public parks are badly designed, or do not meet the needs of today's demanding society.  Parks need to accommodate new technology to a far greater extent than they do at present.</div> <bR> <div> <U>3. High quality build</U></div> <bR> <div> This is necessary to ensure attractiveness, but also to ensure that the site will last and that facilities do not need constant replacement and repair.</div> <bR> <div> <U>4. Interesting and appropriate `human facilities'</U></div> <bR> <div> The provision of catering and toilet facilities in larger parks is essential if we are to attract people into the park of tomorrow.  However, the range and level of facilities must be appropriate to the location, the users and the style of the park.  A formal strategy for rating the quantity and quality of facilities on each site is something that all local authorities should have in place - and something that we can provide.</div> <bR> <bR> <div> <U>5. Extensive and appropriate marketing</U></div> <bR> <div> There must be an appropriate marketing plan, and a <I><B>Brand</B></I> is vital.  The scale of the Plan will depend on the size and hierarchical nature of the site.  For example, one would expect a flagship park to have a fully detailed plan of its own, but there could be a generic plan for a collection of smaller local parks.</div> <bR> <div> <U>6. High quality maintenance</U></div> <bR> <div> This should go without saying, yet it is rarely found over the whole of a site.  The cost of poor quality over the whole life of a park is greater than the cost of providing higher quality maintenance in the first place.</div> <bR> <div> <U>7. Great strategic and day-to-day management</U></div> <bR> <div> Balancing the day to day job and ensuring that the strategic goals for the site are achieved is hard to do, but is necessary if the site is to compete in the modern world.</div> <bR> <div> <U>8. Sufficient and sustainable resources</U></div> <bR> <div> Direct financial resourcing may not be necessary to create a great park.  Time, devotion, skill, knowledge and commitment, plus good management and staff/volunteers, are necessary.  However, it would be naïve to suggest that all sites can be run without some core funding.  The manager's ability to obtain, retain and use all the necessary resources is crucial to the success of any park.</div> <bR> <div> <U>9. Protection and respect</U></div> <bR> <div> Great parks need protection.  They need protection via legislation, via local support and use, and via policies and strategies that ensure their position and status for years to come.</div> <bR> <div> <U>10. Continual challenge and review</U></div> <bR> <div> The world in which we manage is moving at an alarmingly fast pace.  It may not be necessary to make wholesale changes on a regular basis, but making sure that what is being provided is what is needed, and that people are able to access food, toilets and the internet are all vitally important.</div> <bR> <div> <B>Food for Thought</B> - How many managers think of their parks as supermarkets? How many adopt the philosophy of getting people to come back and spend even more time or money on things that they didn't even know they wanted?  </div> <bR> <div> Why do we cage children in play areas, but let dogs run free?</div> <bR> <div> Why aren't plants pruned properly?  Why do we cut grass that grows at different rates at the same frequency?</div> <bR> </td> </tr></table></body>