Parks

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Views opened up

Bramble cleared to open this view.

Bramble cleared to open up this view.

Thanks to the local idVerde team extensive areas of invasive brambles have been cut back on the lower slopes of Martins Hill. This has both opened up views across the Queens Mead toward Shortlands, and created space for other plants including Broom (after which Bromley is named). This is part of our ongoing objective to increase the biodiversity of this area. For more about this go to Martins Hill page

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Proposed design for new Queens Garden playground

Drawing of proposed new playground for Queens Garden

Proposed new design.

We have been passed this ‘visualisation’ of the proposed design for the new playground in Queens Garden. This would replace the current barren building site resulting from the restaurants development. In the foreground there is a small reference to the maze, that was previously on this site, picked out in wooden battens. This has yet to be approved by Bromley council. While this design is very much limited by the reported £10k funding, provided by intuBromley, we hope that if implemented this will provide a safe area for children to play in.

 

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Church House Gardens proposals

Path though Dickerson's Copse.

Dickerson’s Copse, Church House Gardens

We have been advised by Bromley council that they will be sending out a document to various commercial interests.

The document says:
 “The Council is exploring potential Leisure opportunities at Church House Gardens. Expressions of interest, subject to contract, are invited for Leisure and / or Catering projects. Interested applicants are asked to provide outline proposals.” and “Church House Gardens has been identified as having further potential for complementary leisure activities to enhance the attractiveness of Bromley as a retail and leisure destination” 

We had a meeting with a senior manager within the council’s Streetscene &Green Space (i.e. parks) department but, as this policy is being implemented by another part of the council administration we have written to the council Chief Executive further expressing our concerns. In brief these are –

  •  Although any new leisure facilities may be a public benefit we are not aware of any identified shortfall or deficiency in leisure facilities in CHG here –only an underuse of what we already have
  • Commercial exploitation of this park, similar to Queen’s Garden, in order to further increase the general council coffers. Any monies generated will not benefit any parks.
  • We question the need for catering since the Gardens are located in the heart of the biggest food outlet centre in the Borough?
  • No mention of planning constraints for the site (e.g. Urban Open Space policy, Town Centre Conservation Area). While the council insist that it is up to the tenderers to “find this out” we are suspicious as they have outlined many other stipulations in their document, but not the important planning ones.

We understand that High Elms Country Park has also been chosen as part of this pilot scheme. If deemed successful this may be rolled out in other parks.

We have fought, and lost, a 3 year campaign against the loss of part of Queen’s Garden to commercial exploitation and we therefore fear that Church House Gardens, and some other parks, could go the same way. We await the council’s response.

 

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Heritage Green Space walk

Walk leaders welcome people.Tony B dressed as the local rat-catcher & town crier!

Today’s Friends/BCS walk was a tremendous success, with some 60 people turning up! A very pleasant surprise at the numbers, but it was well worth it, with great feedback from all those attending. We visited six of our seven town centre parks explaining their histories, and  the continuing importance of these precious public green spaces. In some cases sadly these are under possible threats from nearby developments. Having started outside in Library Gardens (originally ‘Neelgeries’) we ended up in Bromley Palace Park (aka Civic Centre grounds) where the Bishops of Rochester, until 19th century, held court for about eight centuries. We explained how the public need to support our public parks, so that they are there for future generations. As it states in our groups mandate “We aim is to foster an increased sense of community ownership and involvement in the(se) precious green areas”. To find out more about our parks please go to the ‘Our Parks’ page.