SPRING IS IN THE AIR Assessing our valuable parks by TurfPro Editor, Laurence Gale MSC, MBPR
The Green Flag Award scheme is 25 years old this year and I am hoping I, along with my fellow judges, will be able to physically visit and judge this year’s round of nominated local authorities parks and public run open spaces.
As a current Green Flag Awards judge I’d like to inform you that this year, The Green Flag Award scheme is celebrating it Silver Jubilee (25 years ) of service provision.
The Green Flag Award scheme for parks was first introduced in 1996 in the UK by the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government with the intention of establishing agreed standards of good management, to help to justify and evaluate funding and to raise park attendance.
Since then, the scheme has grown and grown with over 2,000 spaces now flying a Green Flag Award, in over 15 countries across the globe including the USA, Australia, Sweden and Abu Dhabi. To celebrate this 25th anniversary of the scheme Green Flag will be running a number of promotions and special moments throughout the year.
You could say I am biased, but I know how important the Green Flag organisation is. These parks and public open spaces are very important to our wellbeing. A quote from my fellow Green Flag judge, Howard Medlicott (ex parks manager) sums up the importance of parks perfectly. He said, “The real value of such open spaces needs to be considered, the benefits to health, mental and physical welfare are so important. Obesity is now a problem in society and the Covid pandemic has demonstrated the importance of access to Public Open Space. In addition, these land assets contribution to biodiversity and habitat diversity”.
The Green Flag Award scheme recognises and rewards well managed parks and green spaces, setting the benchmark standard for the management of recreational outdoor spaces across the United Kingdom and around the world.
The overall purpose and aims of Green Flag Awards is to :-
To ensure that everybody has access to quality green and other open spaces, irrespective of where they live.
To ensure that these spaces are appropriately managed and meet the needs of the communities that they serve.
To establish standards of good management.
To promote and share good practice amongst the green space sector.
To recognise and reward the hard work of managers, staff and volunteers.
I am hoping by the time it comes to the annual Green Flag judging window (May- June), we may be out of lockdown and I along with fellow Green Flag judges will be able to physically visit and judge this year’s round of nominated local authorities parks and public run open spaces.
Other parks resources
There is some great information on the value of Public open space as portrayed by a survey conducted by Fields In Trust.
Revaluing Parks and Green Spaces aims to change perceptions by establishing a baseline for the value that parks and green spaces contribute to health and wellbeing rather than simply being judged by what they cost to maintain. The research findings demonstrate that parks and green spaces across the United Kingdom provide people with over £34 billion of health and wellbeing benefits.
Also, there are also a number of parks seminars and training days being promoted by APSE and The Amenity Forum.
Nicola Dempsey, Senior Lecturer, University of Sheffield will explain about the work the Green Flag Awards and partner organisations have undertaken to create a link between universities/research organisations and parks management, to share research findings and possibly also funding opportunities for parks and green spaces. And Jo Regan from The Greater Manchester Ignition Project will outline the findings of its Parks Users Survey which asked parks users across Greater Manchester to share their thoughts with local authority parks providers as to how they use their public parks and greenspaces and why they are important to them.
While there are still opportune to attend this Year’s remaining three Amenity Forum Workshop events at the tailend of February / early March /
I also read that the Grounds Management Association (GMA) have published some new guidelines in the form of a GMA toolkit.
GMA #GroundsWeek
The GMA has also announced the launch of #GroundsWeek.
The inaugural celebration week will take place March (1 -7 March 2021) and will celebrate and highlight the vital role of professional grounds staff, volunteers, and the turf sector play in making sport possible.
Following a difficult year for the sector, due to the impact of Covid-19, the GMA say they aim to showcase grounds staff and the amazing work that they do – and have continued to do – despite sport coming to a grinding halt. It also comes after a year where parks and green spaces have been valuable to the public’s health – with increased use for ‘daily exercise’ and physical activity.
With spring just around the corner, the next two months are going to be terribly busy period for grounds professionals (groundsmen and gardeners) who will no bout be busy preparing for the start of the new growing season.
With the Government now looking to get schools back up and running, it will be all hands-on deck for their grounds teams who will have to ensure the school grounds are safe secure and ready for use.
As we come out of a depressing winter, this spring will hopefully be the catalyst to help bring an end to this devastating pandemic and finally there may a light at the end of the tunnel in us getting back to some form of normality - especially we now have vaccinated over a quarter of our UK population.
The first WEB ONLY story this week is with 54 pitches to mark, including Salford City FC’s training ground and stadium, owner of NW Pitch Maintenance, Andy O’Sullivan has brought in the Turf Tank robotic line marker.
Our next WEB ONLY story is RFT Services have announced that they have switched their entire groundscare and arborist machinery fleet to STIHL cordless tools.
Shropshire-based dealers Hughes Bros and Battlefield Machinery will extend their product offerings into new markets.
Kubota (UK) Ltd has announced that two of its machinery dealers are to add the ground care equipment range to their existing Kubota tractor businesses, with immediate effect.
Shropshire-based dealers Hughes Bros and Battlefield Machinery will extend their product offerings to include a full range of compact tractors from 18-60hp, RTV utility vehicles, and commercial and domestic ride-on mowers, allowing both dealerships to expand into new markets.
“We’re extremely pleased to be able to support both Hughes Bros and Battlefield Machinery with the opportunity for further growth in these important sectors,” explains Tim Yates, agricultural and ground care sales manager, Kubota (UK). “This partnership will help Kubota to further strengthen its position in these key markets with the ability to cross-sell between agriculture and ground care customers.”
Richard Hughes at Hughes Bros Agricultural Engineers
Hughes Bros Agricultural Engineers based at Oswestry, was established in 1973 by brothers Gary, Roy and Roger Hughes. A Kubota tractor dealer since 2012, the family-run business also has Kubota implements and Vicon machinery among its portfolio.
“There are great opportunities ahead, supplementing our existing agricultural business with Kubota’s prestigious ground care equipment,” says Richard Hughes, sales manager and partner. “We’ve been looking after many ground care customers with parts and servicing - now we can reinforce that with sales of new equipment.”
Richard Evans and Meyrick Pope at Battlefield Machinery
Battlefield Machinery was formed in 2017 as a Kubota tractor dealer based in Shrewsbury. Run by company directors Richard Evans and Meyrick Pope, the business is one that comprises a team of 14, of which six are mobile engineers.
“We’re delighted to have been given this opportunity to expand our business into new sectors,” says company director Richard Evans. “Ground care fits very well with what we already do - and the ability to now provide sales, service and support to schools, golf clubs, parks and sports grounds is a fantastic opportunity for all involved.
“Our customer base has evolved, and a lot of that is linked to the prestigious brands we supply and service,” he says. “We also want to apply our ‘can-do’ approach to customer service and back-up to the ground care sector. All our customers must benefit from the same level of service and support.”
With both ATCO and the British Legion reaching their century this year, a proportion of the sales value from three specific mowers will be donated to the military charity.
ATCO and the Royal British Legion both celebrate their centenaries this year and to mark this historic double, a proportion of the sales value from three specific mowers will be donated to the military charity.
Stiga, owners of the ATCO brand, are giving £20 from the sale of each Liner 16S and Quatro 16S walk behind mowers and £100 for each GT43HR tractor model, throughout 2021, to the Royal British Legion. Each mower will be decorated with a unique decal to support this partnership.
The campaign is the brainchild of Amanda Kincaid, Stiga’s marketing manager, who served for 23 years in the army. “I contacted the Royal British Legion to see if they could work with us to celebrate ATCO’s centenary and had absolutely no idea that it was a double celebration.”
Gary Whitney, managing director of Stiga said, “The Royal British Legion is the nation’s leading Armed Forces charity and has been supporting serving and ex-service personnel and their families for 100 years. We are delighted that our two centenaries are being marked in a way that will bring practical help to those in the armed forces community.”
Ben France, head of corporate partnerships at the Royal British Legion added, “We are delighted to be working in partnership with ATCO and we are very grateful for their generous pledge of donations on their products. It’s a wonderful way to mark both centenaries and donations raised are used to provide life-long support to serving and ex-serving members of the British Armed Forces, their families and dependents through hardships, injuries and bereavements.”
ATCO was founded in 1921 by Charles H Pugh in Birmingham, where he manufactured the first mass-produced petrol lawnmower. The name ATCO is from the Pugh owned Atlas Chain Company. He wanted to stamp a name on each chain link and the new abbreviated name was invented.
Troon Abu Dhabi is using the Air2G2 Air Inject from Campey Turf Care Systems to further their aeration programme on three courses.
Troon Abu Dhabi is using the Air2G2 Air Inject from Campey Turf Care Systems to further their aeration programme on three courses.
Richard Koen, group head mechanic Troon Abu Dhabi Properties
The property group operates and maintains the spectacular Abu Dhabi Golf Club, Saadiyat Beach Golf Club and Yas Links Abu Dhabi. This trio of courses has hosted prestigious events such as the popular European Tour Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship and the first Ladies European Tour event in Abu Dhabi.
Keeping these courses to the highest standards brings about its own challenges in the desert heat with little rainfall. It is the job of group head mechanic Troon Abu Dhabi Properties, Richard Koen, to oversee the machinery used by each greenkeeping team of 20 per course. Initially sceptical, Richard now sees the Air2G2 as a vital part of the operation.
“I first got to see and work with an Air2G2 back in South Africa,” Richard begins. “To be honest I was a little unsure at first, as I was unfamiliar with the concept and the technology behind the development of the machine. But, despite looking complicated, I soon realised that the Air2G2 is simply designed and easy to operate, and at the time we only used the machine on a rental basis as and when we needed it, so my experience was limited. Once I moved to Abu Dhabi, I was lucky enough to have a new Air2G2 in my fleet.
“The Air2G2 has not replaced any machine or agronomy practice but rather is giving additional benefits. We got it to help with compaction and salt build-up caused by the quality of water we have at our facilities. It gets very hot in the UAE, and the Air2G2 allows us to provide deep aeration in the soil profile without exposing or opening the entire surface to the desert heat compared to more traditional aeration methods.
“Due to the minimal disturbance to the playing surface, we can use it more frequently, creating more oxygen exchange in the profile, allowing us to better flush salts.
“And the no disruption element is a very important aspect for us. Our goal is to present all turf and putting surfaces in the best possible condition to our members and guests and using the Air2G2 al-lows us to do routine aeration throughout the year.”
A family run business based in Bridgnorth, Farm and Garden Machinery now stock a full range of Polaris utility vehicles as well as genuine Polaris parts and accessories.
Set up in 2003 by Neil and Andrea Morris, Neil has over 20 years of experience servicing, repairing and selling UTVs and ATVs, and studied Agricultural Engineering at Walford Agricultural College as well as gaining valuable experience at an agricultural machinery dealer for a few years before setting up his own business with his wife Andrea. Andrea has an accountancy background and looks after the admin, marketing and accountancy side of the business.
“I grew up on a small farm in South Shropshire and I’ve always tinkered with engines and farm machinery from a young age,” said Neil Morris. “We have been looking to take on a franchise that provides reliable side by side vehicles and ATVs and Polaris is the perfect fit. The children’s range is a bonus and we’re excited to have that on offer for our customers.”
Richard Coleby, Polaris Britain national sales manager said of Farm and Garden Machinery, “They are in the ideal location to serve our customers in Shropshire, Worcestershire and the West Midlands, and they offer all the right experience to provide excellent sales and support.”
Agrovista Amenity has appointed Katy Richards who is working on a variety of projects such as e-commerce, SEO and social media advertising.
Agrovista Amenity has appointed Katy Richards as its new digital marketing executive.
Katy Richards
After graduating her three-year degree course in digital marketing, Katy worked for a marketing agency and was quickly promoted from an assistant to an executive – most notably after excelling in search engine optimisation (SEO) and pay-per-click (PPC) campaigns. However, after four years of experiencing ‘city life’ in Birmingham her heart still belonged at home in Shropshire.
“I discovered that it just isn’t for me,” she said. “I am very much a country girl and I needed more greenery back in my life. Therefore, I left the job in Birmingham and moved back to my family home in Shropshire.”
After freelancing and working on a variety of different projects for just over a year Katy applied and won the role at Agrovista Amenity.
“The job obviously caught my eye because it was a digital marketing role, but it was the company culture which really appealed to me,” said Katy. “The amenity and agricultural aspects of Agrovista is all very much part of life when you live in a Shropshire village – it just felt a good fit for me.”
The office environment will have to wait a little longer after the country went back into lockdown on the day before her start date, but Katy is already settling into her new role.
“It is all very exciting and there is lots to do,” she said. “At the moment I am working on a variety of projects such as e-commerce, SEO, social media advertising and I’m also starting to learn HTML coding.
“I’m part of a great team here and my line manager, Siân Workman, has so many excellent plans in place – I’m looking forward to supporting her and playing an important role.
“We are all working from home at the moment,” Katy continued. “It is working really well, and the company has put some excellent procedures in place to ensure that we have excellent communication with one another.
“I find every aspect of this role fascinating and I’m very much looking forward to the road ahead.”
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The threat of closure has been lifted off some local authority run golf courses in the Wirral - however it's problem we see repeated across the country
Recently I posted an interesting video that, for me, highlighted the concerns I now have for the future of many valuable public open spaces and sport facilities run by local authorities.
In recent years we have seen trends by local authorities to either pass on the responsibility of these facilities to a third party, close them down, or sell them off to be built upon to gain land sale monies or reduce their overheads.
Brackenwood Golf Club, along with the other Wirral Municipal Golf Clubs (Arrowe Park, Warren, Irby, West Hoyle, Hoylake) now have renewed hope and optimism for the future following a crucial vote at Wirral Council’s Policy and Resources committee meeting held last Wednesday, 17th February 2021, to safeguard the closure of these four golf courses.
Speaking after the meeting, Brackenwood Golf Club Secretary Keith Marsh said:
“We would like to thank the Labour group for formulating a budget that saves our much loved Golf courses and open spaces. The Golf Clubs that have these courses as their home base, and have done so for many hundreds of years between them are now more optimistic for the future. We are obviously a little disappointed that other parties did not see the merit in the proposed budget but hope that they can be convinced of it for full council in March.
"However, we are under no illusion, Golf does need a longer-term strategic plan to make the service more successful and attractive to players. We need to see that the council has that vision to move the service and golf forward for the future and we would expect the starting point to be agreed recommendations from the workshops and reviews carried out only in 2019 which include a plan for 8 years of investment to bring course back up to standard. This we believe, will enable the subsidy to be reduced and offer all our Club’s a longer term secure future, but for now we wait with hope and optimism that Wirral Council will deliver upon its agreements. Of course, the newly formed Alliance of Wirral Municipal Golf Clubs will be on hand to scrutinise proposals and hold Wirral council to account. But for now we must again recognise the hard work and dedication of Councillor’s Muspratt, Cottier, Williams and Lewis and we look forward to carrying our relationship with them into the future”.
History
This whole saga began when Wirral Council produced figures of a potential saving of £273,000 per year if they offloaded the responsibility and management of these four golf courses. And this saga had been going on for several years.
This is a worrying trend which I believe is ruining the reputation of many local authorities and, over time, is effectively diminishing the services and skills they historically provided.
Examples similar to this have been replicated many times over the years, resulting in the loss of valuable land assets and sports facilities once managed by the councils.
In recent times we have seen the passing on of ownership and management of these land assets to town councils, parrish councils and third parties who themselves then have to upskill to acquire the practices and costs of managing these sites. Technically passing the buck!
Having watched the video, I was keen to find out more about this situation, and duly contacted Keith Marsh, the secretary of Brackenwood Golf Club to find out more information.
It was obvious that Keith and some of his golf associates were keen to put up a fight to save their beloved golf course and rightly ask the council questions about what was happening regarding the future of their golf course - plus the three others that had been mentioned in a proposed scheme to sell them off or indeed close them.
Keith has since posted another video that helps further explain the situation:
Whilst another video shows the stance that most local authorities now find themselves in and having to justify their actions
Historic lack of investment
While I admit it must be a challenging set of issues for the council to undertake and overcome, not least finding the funding, for me this is purely down to the lack of investment and vision and poor management of resources and assets over many, many, years. This council will not be alone, there are many who have faced similar scenarios and will do for years to come.
The seeds of its demise were sown way back when the Compulsory Competitive Tendering (CCT) Act of 1988 was introduced, forcing councils to be more accountable for the services they provided.
This was an initiative whereby local authorities were forced to open up in-house services, such as refuse collection, grounds and road maintenance etc. to private competition in an effort to cut costs and improve value for money. The Best Value regime eventually largely replaced CCT.
The success of this scheme was purely down to how councils would react and take on board this new policy with many being influenced by its political agendas. The net result was a complete transformation in their way of working. Some embraced it, others rebelled, and consequently we ended up with an unprecedented range of service agreements both in-house or externally managed by private contractors / service providers.
However, the major change that has disrupted services in my eyes has been the constant ever ongoing internal management restructures and strategy changes that go on within departments that over time have affected the way services are delivered managed and budgeted.
Many council services have been decimated, or transferred into other large portfolios, and have seen budgets lost and distributed to cover other functions. Therefore, we have lost or severely reduced some frontline services - with parks and green spaces taking the brunt of these changes.
There’s no denying it, the STRI report in this case has highlighted the fact there has been no significant investment in these golf courses for thirty plus years. This is a trend seen at many other local authorities up and down the country.
As a Green Flag judge, I also do find it hard to comprehend when often asking council officers if they know what their annual budgets are for maintaining a specific park or open space, many officers cannot give me a precise budgetary figure? Nine times out of ten it is often part of a bigger service agreement and not known.
Without this information it makes it very difficult to manage and maintain relevant standards of provision. I have seen it myself, and it was one of the reasons I came out of local authority management. I basically lost my voice and the levels of service I wanted to deliver were not seen as a priority. No effort was made to invest and no entrepreneurial spirit was encouraged. Hence the reason many parks and open spaces, as in the case of these four golf courses, were left to a path of deterioration and neglect. In the end a substantial amount of money is required to bring them back to a condition to become viable assets again.
Luckily, all is not lost. There are some authorities that have invested well and produced a sustainable model that brings in substantial income to help them maintain their facilities to a modern day standard.
Let’s hope that this council can move on and start begin a programme of investment to retain these unique golf course facilities.
Next in our regular series of the TurfPro Files, we hear from David Withers, md Iseki UK & Ireland
TurfPro editor, Laurence Gale writes:
One of the biggest challenges our industry faces in the coming years will be inspiring the next generation of turf professionals to join our sector. We desperately need to start finding ways to encourage more people to come and work in this diverse, international industry.
To help start this process, I have asked a number of our leading professionals to write a piece about how they came to work in this industry and the opportunities it has given them.
David Withers, md UK Iseki UK & Ireland
Tell us about yourself?
I work at Iseki UK & Ireland as managing director. We are based in Ipswich and look after Iseki interests in UK, Ireland, Middle East and South Africa. Prior to working here I worked for Jacobsen for 24 years serving 6 years as President of Jacobsen and 7 years as managing director of Ransomes Jacobsen. My first job in the industry was as a demonstrator for Charterhouse Turf Machinery in the late 80s.
Who or what inspired you to take up your career?
Like many people I came into this industry almost by accident, but very quickly learned to really enjoy and appreciate the benefits of being in such a great market and decided to stay in the industry for my career. The attitude I have always tried to follow is to do the best you can for the company you work for and your career will take care of itself. On many occasions I was given or took more responsibility than my existing job description would say that I should have without getting the appropriate title or compensation change - but in due course these followed. Some people get so hung up on mapping out their careers that they forget that the best way of getting on is to do a great job for the company you work for and everything else will follow..
Which individuals have inspired you or helped you develop professionally?
I have taken bits and pieces from everyone who I have worked for and much from people that worked for me or with me. A few mentions would be when I joined Charterhouse Turf Machinery my bosses were David Jenkins and Philip Threadgold and they very much emphasised the basics of all business protocols in terms of, punctuality, professionalism and personal responsibility. Peter Bell who was MD at Jacobsen UK prior to the acquisition of Ransomes was a great believer in customer relationships and this was a concept that has become my main guiding principal thorough the rest of my career. It’s all about people!
What concerns do you have for the future of our industry?
The industry will change and adapt - but it will survive. People want to play sport and enjoy green spaces and that means that maintenance of these spaces will continue. Over time there will be more robotics and we will all have to learn to do more with less.
How do you think we can entice the next generation of industry professionals to come and work in this industry?
This is a concern as to how we showcase what a great industry this is, to bring in the next generation of people who will be as committed to the industry as the last generations have been. We are seeing that people these days expect to move companies and have more career changes than was common in the past, but I still believe that we will attract great talent into our industry.
How have recent events impacted on your job and how would you like to see the government support our industry?
The first shutdown was pretty tough but since then business has rebounded and been more back to normal. I don’t think anyone would accuse the Government of having shown any competence in its dealing with the pandemic and I think we will all need to continue to work these things out ourselves as best we can.