Case study 1:

A splash of colour
Peabody Trust

Peabody Trust houses over 50,000 people, in over 19,000 dwellings,spread over about 100 estates and other scattered properties across 26 London boroughs. It has been responsible for creating and managing open spaces since the development of its first estates in the 1860s. This was to allow them to function as safe communal places, and more latterly as amenity spaces with aesthetic benefits. The Trust has always endeavoured to manage its open spaces effectively, cost-efficiently, sympathetically and to reflect the needs of residents, but until recently, a strategic approach to this work - and the benefits that can accrue from this - was not adequately embedded. The range of spaces for which the Trust is responsible is diverse, from hard incidental spaces and playing fields, through to woodland and ornamental shrubberies. They include 'private' and communal spaces, those within leaseholder properties, and a growing number of new spaces through its development and stock transfer programmes. The management and improvement of these spaces is not a legal or a regulatory requirement. The Trust undertakes this work because it largely reflects what residents want, and to that extent it is highly influenced by the resources obtained through rents and service charges.

External resources have been brought to bear on some estate spaces (often with highly profound results, as at Stamford Street), but this requires internal capacity to locate and secure those resources. Open space improvements have largely been undertaken through a reactive and/or opportunistic process, rather than one founded upon our strategic priorities.

Towards a strategic approach

The Best Value Review of grounds maintenance in 2001/02 was an important step for the Trust. It enabled it to take stock of the service to date, and put in place procedures for the future. The external drivers have led the Trust to place the review's recommendations within a wider context that cuts across many more of the Trust's services and programmes. A principal recommendation from the Review was for the Trust to develop and implement an Ecology Strategy to address many of the issues raised. Given the Government's contemporary policies in respect of urban green spaces, it was felt that an over-arching Open Spaces Strategy would be more appropriate. This now incorporates an Ecology Strategy, a Tree Strategy, (identified as a discrete priority in 2003), and is integrated within the objectives of the Trust's Sustainability and Sports Strategies.


The Strategy aims to meet a range of objectives, primarily to ensure that the roles and benefits of the portfolio of open spaces are maximised within the Trust's operations:

• To interpret and implement the national,London-wide and local legislation and policy frameworks on open and green spaces;
• To manage the existing and future open space resource through best technical practice for the multiple objectives of amenity, play & recreation, biodiversity conservation, landscape, and wider socio-environmental benefits;
• To promote the benefits of green spaces to residents, staff and other stakeholders, and facilitate residents in enjoying their safe use of the open spaces of our estates;
• To integrate the management, enhancement and use of the Trust's open spaces with the Trust's core operations and services;
• To guide residents, staff, and contractors on the sustainable design and management principles for the Trust's open spaces;
• To ensure that management decisions that affect open spaces are transparent and based on objective analysis of their benefits and functions;
• To identify priorities for open space enhancement, refurbishment and creation;
• To identify the resources required to maintain and enhance the Trust's open spaces;
• To facilitate residents in safely accessing the open spaces of their neighbourhoods, through working with external partners;
• To identify how the expertise and energies of residents, staff and external partners can be brought together to further the understanding of, and benefits from, the Trust's open spaces;
• To promote awareness of the value of the Trust's open space environments both internally and externally.

A key objective will be to enhance residents' access to and engagement with the natural environment, if they so desire. Recognising that the opportunities for this are going to be limited within the grounds of many of the Trust's existing properties, the Strategy seeks to strengthen the links between its properties and the managers of neighbouring green spaces, such as parks and other sites. A range of organisations, including local authorities and voluntary bodies, have the resources to facilitate access to green spaces and the natural environment, and help overcome the barriers that many people face in visiting them.

Riverside Green

As with all initiatives to develop a strategic approach, existing demonstrations of good practice can help shape that development. The Trust's Stamford Street estate (built 1875-94, 214 dwellings), a stone's throw from Waterloo station, has been transformed through the combination of effort and vision by staff and residents. Subject to a major environment improvement programme in 1996-9, the original hard courtyards were greened through the installation of new flower-beds, shrubberies, trees and a redesigned tree-lined car-park. New play facilities were established, partly designed by the estate's children, and new seating installed.

A number of residents felt that further improvements could be made to the landscape, and formed the Riverside Green Scheme in 2002. Successful in securing additional funding for plant stock, training, materials and tools, they have brought a lot of colour to the landscaping; a rainbow of annuals and perennials. Residents have received training from Bankside Open Spaces Trust, and further support from Roots " Shoots and the Metropolitan Public Gardens Association, in liaison with the Trust. Although the Scheme hasn't been without its hiccups, the results are clear to see, and the Estate is a colourful demonstration of residents bringing their desires and interests into shaping their immediate environment.

The Trust intends to further develop these initiatives where resources permit. We are currently developing partnership projects with a range of organisations, including BTCV, Groundwork, Forestry Commission, Trees for London, and the Royal Horticultural Society, in order to bring their expertise to bear on our varied landscapes for the benefits of our residents.

---

Mathew Frith
Lanscape Regeneration Manager, Peabody Trust
www.peabody.org.uk


Back to list of Conference Case studies