One of the posters for Continental Landscapes' 'Fighting Dirty' campaign in partnership with Richmond Council
Brent Council is set to appoint a new contractor for the grounds maintenance of its parks, open spaces, playgrounds, sports pitches, council estate grounds and allotments. Cemeteries are not mentioned but I presume they are also covered.
The appointment of Continental Landscapes follows the decision to separate the public realm contracts into waste management, grounds maintenance and highways. Leaseholders on council estates will be consulted on the progress of the contract.
Park wardens are to be brought in-house, directly employed by Brent Council.
The contract will be worth £2.2m a year or c£17.6m over the initial 8 year term of the contract and c£35.2m over the full 16 year contract period.
Continental Landscapes website states:
Continental Landscapes was formed in 1989 and is a member of the Krinkels Group, who operate in the Netherlands, Belgium, Germany, France and the UK.
Since 1989, we have grown substantially in size and reputation. The company has developed significantly and now has a multi-million pound turnover. Continental Landscapes is involved in every aspect of grounds maintenance, street cleansing and landscaping services. In addition there are a number of divisions within the company offering a comprehensive range of related services.
Continental Landscapes has won many prestigious industry awards. We are also active members of the British Association of Landscape Industries (BALI) and The Institute of Parks and Green Space (IPGS).
Our core commitments of developing staff from within, creating partnerships with our clients, being respectful to the natural environment and having directly-employed environmental, conservation and biodiversity specialists means we have an embedded culture of respect in every facet of our business.
Continental Landscapes was formed in 1989, a family business that was started to meet the new opportunities afforded by competitive tendering, and over 30 years has grown to be one of the largest specialist providers for high quality parks, open spaces and streets. We are unique in the marketplace in that our flexibility and experience allows us to work on individual one-off projects to city-scale long term projects. In a marketplace that is flooded with multinational companies made up of a portfolio of different businesses, our management team, and the company, are horticulture and street scene specialists. This understanding of the industry from board level to front-line gardener is what sets us apart and allows us to understand our clients and the needs of their customers intimately.
Let's hope they live up to their mantra. The fact that Brent Council are now doing a 360 in bringing back Park Wardens in house, makes me wonder had they not kept the Park Warden in Collins Lodge in King Eddies the Park would not have deteriorated into the state it's in now. Veolia who is the current contractor seem hard pressed to not only empty the bins regularly but to also pick up all the rubbish surrounding them, and sweep the paths often strewn with glass and such like.
ReplyDeleteI look forward to seeing the impact once they take over if only to eradicate the Drinkers, Drug Dealers, stupid people who think that it's ok to feed the Wild Birds their leftovers encouraging Rats, and the ones that think its ok to dump their rubbish sacks, and not pick up their dog mess.
I fail to understand the logic of Brent entering into 8 and possible 16 year contracts with companies. What happens if companies do not deliver on their promises? Will Brent’s lawyers and masters have a water tight get out clause in the contract to cancel it if the companies don’t deliver? I guess not as this would require Brent officers to monitor the services which they don’t do, siting pressures on staff, not enough staff to monitor etc. even when residents have highlighted issues and brought them to the officers attention nothing gets done 98% of the time. Issues seem to disappear into thin air. Attitude seems to be if residents are ignored they will tire and stop bringing issues up.
ReplyDeleteAre there any plans by Brent Masters to upskill staff to improve services?
8 or 16 year contracts means they never have to be held accountable
DeleteLet's face it, the London Borough of Bent is one of the most deprived in GL, all the Council care about is letting their developer friends build blocks of flats at unaffordable rates for people who don't live in the borough, and pretend that Council Houses supplied at market rate or joint ownership are somehow social housing. What a farce.
ReplyDeleteWhich parks in Brent still have park wardens??? We didn't know there were any left now? If they are brought back in house at Brent Council what actual powers will they have and how will they be supported? Council officers and the police know where all the park drinkers are each day but do nothing to fine them nor move them on and our Council tax pays for all their litter to be cleared. Brent Parks used to be stunning let's hope these new people can make a difference but without proper sustained enforcement nothing will improve.
ReplyDeleteA far as I know they are 'mobile wardens' at present. It would be great if there were permanent wardens at each of our parks as in the old days (my uncle was a 'park keeper' at King Eddies in Wembley last century) but I think the budget would not stretch to this.
ReplyDeleteA far as I know they are 'mobile wardens' at present. It would be great if there were permanent wardens at each of our parks as in the old days (my uncle was a 'park keeper' at King Eddies in Wembley last century) but I think the budget would not stretch to this.
ReplyDeleteOne warden at each park will not help if there's a large group causing problems.
ReplyDeleteRe Anon 17:42 - This is the LB of Bent, even if the contracts were monitored they wouldn't hold the provider responsible would they? Its good to have friends isn't it? Just take for example the £millions lost at Granville New Homes, First Wave Housing's outstanding liability for the purchase and the rectification costs being paid for by the Borough's social tenants. As Cllr Long said at either Audit or Scrutiny, the Council have known about the faults for years. Where were Cllrs Butt, McLennan, Tatler, Southwood through all this farce, they all had this within their portfolios and the ability to fix. First Wave still owe £20m at increasing interest rates for the build and Brent's Social Rent Fund will have to find the £20m+ rectification bill. Shame on them all.
ReplyDeleteRe Anon 17.52, while at the same time mobile patrols often can't get to the scene in time - particularly places like Welsh Harp and Fryent Country Park where for example packs of dogs off lead may be deep inside the open space. No easy answers for a cash-strapped council.
ReplyDeleteThere are so few of us left on the parks service it's become a basic service only as for the park wardens they have been mobile for well over a decade static park wardens were phased out years ago
ReplyDeleteThanks for clarifying, I thought that was the case. We need more infromation on the Council's intentions.
ReplyDeleteThe cash strapped Brent Council that approved spending £88K of NCIL money on murals and those pointless painted pedestrian crossings in Ealing Road!
ReplyDeleteThis money would have been better spent on paying the wages of 3 or 4 park wardens.
Unfortunately I don't think paying wardens would qualify as a recipient of NCIL. See https://www.brent.gov.uk/ncil
ReplyDeleteAs for the cemetery service they were taken back in house to compliment Brent funeral services the council owned funeral business
ReplyDeleteInteresting, that Climate Emergency Brent is one of only 5 councils in 2023 which does not yet have a service level agreement with GIGL- Greenspace Information for Greater London- a state of the art green spaces technical data resource for London.
ReplyDeleteBrents green space environmental data certainly as regards South Kilburn many masterplan(s)is all over the place inaccurate/ brown field/ grey field/ vehicle roads as the future public open space only instead.
Even site plans for council agent planning applications 21/2587 can loan green space from a neighbour development already completed in order to help spatially pretend that Granville Road Public Open Green Space is finally being council masterplan replaced and that can be PA registered as being valid?
Mobile Parks Wardens better than none - just need to know how many at present.
ReplyDeleteIf Brent regards South Kilburn Public Green Open Space and Granville Road Public Green Open Space as unmap brownfield them bit-by-bit revoke word games, then maybe Brent are totally unfit custodians in 2023 of these key green public open spaces and local people should be enabled to strong legal protect and then access massive long available (Brent blocked) improve and maintain these two 'green lungs' well funds.
ReplyDeleteHow can mobile park wardens do a proper job? Look at One Tree Hill in Alperton - full of street drinkers and their litter all say everyday and yet Brent Council say they can't catch them - we need dedicated park wardens and enforcement officers for each park.
ReplyDeleteSeveral times we seen dog walkers at Welsh Harp walking up to 8 or 10 dogs on their own on weekday mornings.
ReplyDeleteThe dogs have run through the woodlands towards us totally out of control long distances from the walkers - they could easily knock you off your feet or seriously hurt a child
Wardens need to investigate these people