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BUDGET CUTS COULD SEE PARK AND COMMUNITY WARDENS MERGE

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18 February 2010

Oliver Pugh
oliverp@southwarknews.org

Southwark Council has denied that a £320,000 cut to the budget will damage the job done by park wardens.

Rumours that they could face a drop in overall numbers are yet to be confirmed but it is feared that park wardens and community wardens could be merged.

According to the council's budget: "This proposal is the rationalisation of town centre wardens and environmental enforcement.” It adds that the number of managers will be cut from eighteen to eleven.

Southwark Labour's Environment spokesperson, Cllr Barrie Hargrove said: "This is the second time the Lib Dems will have killed-off our borough's park-specific community safety team in just a few years. We stood by community groups in opposing their decision to abolish the park rangers and we still think that it's the wrong decision.

Making our parks safe needs to be an absolute priority so that they can be places that all residents can enjoy. Across Southwark our parks still have problems with violent crime, like Burgess Park, and vandalism, like Peckham Rye Park, Southwark Park and Russia Dock Woodland.”

But Cllr Linda Manchester, executive member for community safety at Southwark Council, said the cuts would mean a better use of resources. She said: "Our plans will make sure that officers, including wardens, anti social behaviour, environmental health and trading standards officers will be at the right place and at the right time, with the focus on the major town centres where the majority of the issues arise.

We'll also have a bigger borough wide team that can respond quickly to any emerging problems or to provide reassurance as necessary. We will continue our patrolling around schools at key times and will respond to serious incidents to support the community and our partner agencies.” She added: "We have already reduced the number of managers and will be consulting with staff on the rest of our proposals in more detail very soon."

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