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Why you should apply a levels of service approach to parks

By intouch * posted 18-04-2017 17:01

  

Instead of slashing maintenance schedules, local governments that want to spend less on parks should reduce the amount of assets they provide, Xyst Australia Director and IPWEA trainer Jayson Kelly says.


Kelly says it is a common misconception that reducing maintenance levels is the best way to make parks more affordable.

Playground-470970798_685x514.jpeg“It’s more about what you provide on a park than the level of maintenance that you do,” he says.

“We think that to make savings we need to reduce the standard of maintenance, but that’s actually the wrong thing to do – it just generates complaints. What we fail to do is make the link between how many things we provide on a park and what that park costs to maintain.

“Rather than changing the standard of maintenance, a better way to influence cost is to either provide more or less things to maintain on a park – and that’s what local government hasn’t been doing.”

Taking a good, hard look at whether park assets are affordable is just one of the strategies that will be discussed at the upcoming Parks Management: Levels of Service workshops. The one day face-to-face workshops, which will be held around Australia from 3 May, are based on Practice Note 10.3 Parks Management: Levels of Service, released earlier this year. 

A levels of service approach

Kelly says the focus of the workshops is on taking a ‘levels of service approach’ to parks – something many organisations fail to do.

“It’s critical that councils get this right. Most councils are investing heavily in parks, and have to be accountable for how financially sustainable they are,” he says.

“You need to document what you’re going to try and provide on different types of parks, and make sure you’re only providing what you can afford to maintain. Most organisations aren’t taking that strategic approach to parks management.”

Taking a strategic approach is particularly important in the Victorian and NSW context, where councils are facing increased pressures from rate capping and amalgamations respectively.

“Many are grappling with different levels of service across more established and developing communities, and they’re looking for a model of how to go about it,” Kelly says.

Additionally, many councils are inheriting what Kelly calls “Rolls-Royce” level parks, which present their own problems.

“Parks have been developed in an ad-hock way, particularly in new subdivisions, for the purpose of trying to sell the subdivision. Councils are approving and being handed over these highly embellished local parks, and no one’s thought about how the renewal or maintenance of those parks is going to be funded."

The International Infrastructure Management Manual (IIMM) defines levels of service as:
“The parameters or combination of parameters that reflect social, political, economic and environmental outcomes that the organisation delivers.Levels of service statements describe the outputs or objectives an organisation or activity intends to deliver to customers.”

Leave no parks planner behind


Kelly says parks teams should ensure that parks planners also attend the workshops.

“To get levels of service right, so that it works as intended, it’s important to get people involved from parks operations, parks asset management and parks planning,” Kelly says.

“Levels of service are all about looking forward, and one of the basic building blocks of what we provide is land. If you’re providing too much of the wrong sort of land, that will have a roll-on effect of what sort of assets you’re providing, and what your maintenance costs are. Parks planners are planning the future of parks, so we need to make sure they’re on board and have input into levels of service.

“Don’t just bring one person, bring a key player from parks operations, asset management and planning along. The takeaway message is valuable to each of those three parks disciplines collectively – if you’ve got the operational, asset management and planning people taking the message back to an organisation it’s much more likely to be implemented.

“To people who would normally come along to these workshops, make sure you bring your parks planner as well this time – this is one for them especially.”

The Parks Management: Levels of Service workshops kick off in Perth on 3 May. For more information, visit www.ipwea.org/parks2017.
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