Highbury Park Friends

Emma Woolf, Chair of the Birmingham, writes to ask us to think about the proposed changes to the Ranger and Parks Services. The motive for these change is a mixture of improving the service by allocating Rangers’ time more equally and pressure to make service cuts. The two objectives don’t mix particularly well, and the current proposal (available here) should be reworked.

Dear Friends of Birmingham’s Parks and Open Spaces

Birmingham Open Spaces Forum (BOSF) is a voluntary group that supports the city’s friends and user groups of parks and open spaces.

Please find attached, for your information, our response to the proposed changes to the Ranger and Parks Services.

While BOSF feels that further cuts in the funds available to open spaces are not in the city’s best interest we are keen for users to engage constructively in the re-organisation.

a. We are concerned that under the re-organisation of the role currently undertaken by Constituency Parks Managers the number of posts is being reduced from 10 to 4 – meaning that in some cases one officer will service 3 Constituencies (with no sickness or holiday cover).

b. We support plans to make the Ranger Service available to more community organisations by moving Rangers to hub sites – but are concerned that the reduction in posts will negate the re-organisation. We hope the requirement for individual schools to pay for their Ranger Service session won’t deny young people valuable access to knowledge and experience of their environment.

We hope you will have a look at the attached document and will act to ensure that the needs of open spaces and their users are at the heart of decisions that are being considered.

Best wishes,

Emma Woolf, Chair
Birmingham Open Spaces Forum

Download Response Document:
Changes_to_Parks_Department_Structure_response_document