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29-01-08, 11:37 AM

I've been the mamager of the Thames Barrier Park for the last five and a half years. When I started it was in a real state, nothing had been looked after at all - even the lawns had thistles growing out of them.
The park is an international award winning park (RIBA Award 2001, Millenium Marque Award), costing £12.5m to create. It's a park that is loved by not only the local communities, but by many other people who travel some distance to visit it regularly.
I've given talks to a loads of different interest groups (CABE, CABE Space, Writtle College, Capel Manor, Univeristy of East London, Various Landscape Architect consultants and businesses, a Univerisy from France, a group who came over from Belgium to see the park and Kew, and a group from Sweden), I have also showed round various councils and am off to Dublin to talk about meadow management in a urban park because someone from Dublin City Council was on Holiday and loved the park so much that they wanted to take the principles that we use on site and use them in the parks of Dublin.
You can't do a job like mine without getting very very attached to it, so when I heard that my client has decided to dumb down the maintenance so that they can save some money, you can imagine how I feel.
I do not do this job for the money (just as well), I do it because I want to give more back to this world then I take. I do something that improves the lives of over the 120,000 people who visit the park each year. The park is more than just a place that you can take a dog to have a crap! It's a place where people can come and forget all their stresses and troubles, a place where families can come and enjoy a day out together.
It's also a place that teams with wildlife, and the biodiversity of the park is improving...
... It won't for much longer.

Why do we treat our open spaces with such disregard?
Why should I carry on busting my balls, as in a couple of months time the park's specification will be cut, and the maintenance budget as well.
In 5 years I have never found a single hypo....

29-01-08, 11:37 AM	#1
Caddy2000 Guest Posts: n/a	What would you do? I've been the mamager of the Thames Barrier Park for the last five and a half years. When I started it was in a real state, nothing had been looked after at all - even the lawns had thistles growing out of them. The park is an international award winning park (RIBA Award 2001, Millenium Marque Award), costing £12.5m to create. It's a park that is loved by not only the local communities, but by many other people who travel some distance to visit it regularly. I've given talks to a loads of different interest groups (CABE, CABE Space, Writtle College, Capel Manor, Univeristy of East London, Various Landscape Architect consultants and businesses, a Univerisy from France, a group who came over from Belgium to see the park and Kew, and a group from Sweden), I have also showed round various councils and am off to Dublin to talk about meadow management in a urban park because someone from Dublin City Council was on Holiday and loved the park so much that they wanted to take the principles that we use on site and use them in the parks of Dublin. You can't do a job like mine without getting very very attached to it, so when I heard that my client has decided to dumb down the maintenance so that they can save some money, you can imagine how I feel. I do not do this job for the money (just as well), I do it because I want to give more back to this world then I take. I do something that improves the lives of over the 120,000 people who visit the park each year. The park is more than just a place that you can take a dog to have a crap! It's a place where people can come and forget all their stresses and troubles, a place where families can come and enjoy a day out together. It's also a place that teams with wildlife, and the biodiversity of the park is improving... ... It won't for much longer. Why do we treat our open spaces with such disregard? Why should I carry on busting my balls, as in a couple of months time the park's specification will be cut, and the maintenance budget as well. In 5 years I have never found a single hypo....