Public parks in England under threat from spending cuts

Arthurgray50@blu · 11-02-2017, 22:22

http://news.sky.com/story/public-par...-cuts-10763463

When l was growing up, there was an old saying 'you cannot get blood out of a stone'

I think that with the budget cuts hitting Councils. Now Local Parks are going to suffer, with either early closures or even litter collection.

Isn't it about time that the Government starts to realise that budgets to local Council have hit rock bottom and they cannot cut anything else.

We have Council's now going to fortnightly refuse collections - some l believe are going to Monthly collection to save money.

All this has to be the biggest problem going.

Councils make money - that we don't see. On recycling material ie paper and tin can, glass etc.
And yet they still at they are at a loss.
Then they make an absolute fortune on Parking plus fines.

And yet now they say that Councils are going to cuts parks.

The local Parks near don't have any Toilets, they were closed years ago. The biggest park near me Gunnersbury Park is an absolutely disgrace. It was sold to a private Company years ago. And just left to rot.

Local football fields - ie Warren Farm was sold to QPR as there new training ground. And this has been hit by local protest. And the Fields was left in disrepair - again by the local Council.

So when you hit rock bottom, where do you go from there. And yet, they cliam they have to make cuts - take the money from the thousands they make from hitting us in fines

Taf · 12-02-2017, 11:25

As for making money out of recycling, that stopped ages ago here. A lot is now stored, at cost to the local taxpayer, because the sheer volume of recycled materials made the price collapse. And a lot of that expected to be sold is rejected as being "contaminated".

The parks though are suffering. The only bits regularly mowed are sports areas where users pay to use the land. Litter-picking seems to have almost stopped, apart from in highly public areas. Tree management is lacking as well. Fallen trees are just left to rot.

Our council is trying to get out of the pensions game, they want contractors to be liable for their workers' pensions (and sick pay, training, etc.). After big manpower cuts they tried to shift Social Care to contractors, but it appears that was not a lucrative proposal, so the council has just announced that they are taking on staff for that role.

They have been closing Pensioners Care Homes and Day Care units, so care must be in the patient's own home.