In the first of our participant blogs, the Programme Manager for Bloomsbury² Squared gives her first impressions of Rethinking Parks.
In the first of our participant blogs, Shirley Blake, Programme Manager for Bloomsbury² Squared in London Borough of Camden, provides her first impressions of being involved in the Rethinking Parks programme.
I have recently joined the London Borough of Camden as Bloomsbury² Squared Programme Manager, working on the one year Rethinking Parks project for nine of the Bloomsbury Squares.
It is still early days, but I am now getting to know the various stakeholders linked to the Bloomsbury Squares. So far I have been impressed by three things in particular:
“These squares…are our back gardens”
The nine Bloomsbury Squares all have their own characters; some have more of a community focus, whilst others are on the tourist trails. But comments from the Friends that “in this city environment, these squares are very important to us and act effectively as our back gardens” really brought home to me the need for sensitivity in how the Squares are managed and developed.
Our consultants Shared Assets have now completed their work on a baseline analysis of each of the Bloomsbury Squares, and we are sharing the findings from this with our stakeholders. One key finding so far is that a compulsory levy will definitely provide one way of raising significant levels of new funding for the parks, but it will also require some substantial partnership building work. A broader concept of a Parks Improvement District model, based on the Bryant Park model in the US, is also being explored.
I am really looking forward to helping to rethink the management and maintenance approaches to the Squares over the next 12 months, and exploring all the options available.