HyPER attended the Royal Parks stakeholder meeting for an update on all matters related to Hyde Park and Kensington Gardens.
Chief Executive update
The meeting started with an update from the Chief Executive of the Royal Parks, Andrew Scattergood, who explained that there have been many board-level changes recently in the Royal Parks Charity, including a change of Chair and trustees.
Current challenges include climate change (this year’s summer being the hottest on record) as well as maintaining revenue to match inflation (especially inflation of construction costs).
There are 2 new visions for the parks:
- A Tree Vision which guides the maintenance and planting of trees (with separate tree plans for each park);
- A Horticultural Vision
The last remaining major project has been the new café Roehampton Gate in Richmond Park, after which there will be a pause in major projects.
Hyde Park manager update
Jason Taylor gave an update on Hyde Park. The loss of the dedicated parks police has made enforcement more difficult within the parks, with the current issues including cycling (although there has been improvements to geo-fencing of hire bikes); rough sleeping; protests and encampments; and general problems with crime/theft. Regular meetings with the police take place to help address these issues.
British Summer Time was an operational success, although with only 8 events this year.
The build for Winter Wonderland starts on Thursday 15th October.
Water has been an issue and there has still not been any significant rain. Water has needed to been taken from underground aquifers with the hosepipe ban in force, although this then needs to be transported around in bowsers. This year included the first grassland fire in the park due to the heat and dryness.
The hot weather also resulted in a reduction in numbers of people using the park and more blue green algae.
The Diana Fountain was dry due to a broken pump, which has recently been fixed.
A new arrangement has been made on South Carriage Drive for cyclists to enter and exit and is being operated as a trial.
Kensington Gardens manager update
Andy Williams gave an update on Kensington Gardens. The reopened Princess Diana Memorial Playground has been a great success, with 270,000 children visiting the first month of opening. Over one million views were made of social media influencer videos. The new playground is able to collect water from run-offs, although the hosepipe ban meant that the crocodile was not fully-operational this year.
Trees are under much more stress this year due to the heat, although efforts are being made to improve their water-holding capacity such as by adding mulching.
The leaf yard has been renewed (the composting facility) which process 2000 tonnes of organic waste each year.
The Elfin Oak refurbishment has been completed (next to the Princess Diana Memorial Playground).
A new children’s trail is being installed by the end of the year, which will consist of wooden sculptures in the north-west of the park.
There are planned changes for the Italian Gardens, the exact details are to be confirmed, although there will definitely be palms planted.
Events manager update
Niki Duignan gave an update on events in the parks. British Summer Time was a success this year, albeit with only 8 events instead of 9. Lewis Capaldi was particularly successful with a live stream to 2 million viewers. Forthcoming events will be a standard programme, including Winter Wonderland later this year and BST again next year.
Tickets for Winter Wonderland are now on sale. This year will be the 4th year of Winter Wishes, which provides an accessible version of the event. There is also a new partnership with Great Ormond Street Hospital.
Police update
Chief Inspector Jon Hubbard gave an update of policing issues. Overall notifiable offences have reduced across the parks in the last quarter (compared to the same period last year), including theft (328 to 174 incidents), robbery (down 14%), violence against people (down 13%) and sexual offences (down 22%). However, anti-social behaviour has increased (up by 36% across all Royal parks), with Kensington Gardens seeing one of the biggest increases.
With the reduction in police being present in the parks, users are encouraged to report any issues to the Metropolitan Police website or call-handling system. For general intelligence and information, parks users are encouraged to use the new Met Engage system which sends information directly to officers.