Newham Council’s improvements to its parks have been recognised in the prestigious ‘Good Parks for London 2021’ report, compiled by Parks for London. The report assessed London boroughs’ parks services from April 2020 to March 2021 against the ten Good Parks criteria.
Newham has jumped an impressive 10 places in the league table within two years of moving the maintenance of the borough’s parks in-house.
In 2021 Newham leapt 7 places in ranking and gained the rating of ‘significant improvement.’
In the categories of ‘Public Satisfaction,’ ‘Events,’ and ‘Health, Fitness and Wellbeing’ Newham achieved the highest tier rating.
Councillor James Asser, Cabinet Member for Environment, Highways and Sustainable Transport said: “We are delighted to see the improvements the Council has made to Newham parks being recognised in a London-wide league table. The results of this year’s ‘Good Parks for London’ report clearly show that transferring the management of our parks in-house was the right thing to do and is improving our parks. Insourcing has enabled us to be more responsive to the needs of residents, to contribute positively towards residents leading healthier, more active lives and allowed us to deliver a far better service overall.”
This report follows on from two of Newham parks being awarded the prestigious Green Flag Award. Plashet Park retained the accolade for the sixth year in a row and this year Central Park in East Ham has been added to the list of award winners.
Cllr Asser added: “We know there is huge demand from residents for good parks and lots of people and community groups are working with us to achieve that. I would like to thank all those people who have helped us achieve this improvement and we will continue to work hard to achieve the highest standards.”
The report, an annual publication now in its fifth year, is highly competitive and this year’s edition highlights far greater use of London’s green spaces due to Covid.