Improvements to Greenwich’s St Alfege park are coming

Improvement works for St Alfege’s park in Greenwich are on the drawing board with £177,000 earmarked for upgrade work.

The figure comes from next week’s community safety and environmental scrutiny panel meeting.

It’s a welcome use of Section 106 money, which is income from developers given to local authorities upon agreement of new development.

£177,000 is coming from those funds. Greenwich Council have £34 million of Section 106 in their accounts, with around £174 million more to come. Far from all is allocated – nor spent. And those figures are from 2017. Figures will be higher now as more large developments since approved – as well as ever increasing income through New Homes Bonus and the Community Infrastructure Levy.

Poorer areas miss out?

One thing that is clear from reading the meeting notes is that improvement works in parks only progress if there is a local group for a particular area.

Yet what about the poorer and more deprived parts of the borough where park groups do not exist?

It could be due to apathy, language barriers, transient and fragmented communities and much more.

Whatever the reason, those areas need support, and current practice could help explain why some green areas in poor parts of town are in such poor shape.

There’s some great work being done but lets not forget the poorer parts of the borough – which are often more in need than most.

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