Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
URBAN PARK AND OPEN SPACE PROVISION IN LONDON
Research on recreation and leisure in London has hitherto attracted little interest at a
city-wide level following the abolition of the Greater London Council (GLC) in 1986,
which had included leisure and recreation in its strategic planning function. Since 1986
each London Borough's Unitary Development Plan is the framework for the formulation
of policies to guide the provision of parks and open spaces. Planning advice from the
London Planning Advisory Committee (LPAC) has continued with many of the former
GLC leisure planning principles, although the draft London Plan
(http://www.london.gov.uk/) launched in June 2002 is a spatial development strategy for
London and seeks to maintain strategic open spaces in the capital—particularly London's
green belt, Metropolitan Open Land and green corridors or chains. These designations
have been incorporated into most London Boroughs' leisure and recreation plans with the
UDPs. Leisure and recreation still remain a neglected aspect of London's diverse
economic, social and cultural activities. Major studies of London's urban geography and
expanding service sector (e.g., Hoggart and Green 1991) fail to acknowledge the
significance of leisure service provision, although R.Bennett (1991:212-13) did examine
the London Boroughs' statutory responsibility for leisure and recreation provision. The
scale and nature of open space provision in London was set out in the Greater London
Development Plan (Greater London Council 1969). Table 5.1 outlined the hierarchy of
parks and open space provision envisaged in the late 1980s within the revised Greater
London Development Plan (see Nicholls 2001 for a North American illustration of this
hierarchy). This is still very much a space standard driven approach. Provision was based
on a hierarchical principle, with different parks fulfilling various functions according to
their size and distance from the users' home. The concept of variety in park supply was to
be achieved by the diversity of functions offered by parks in the capital, emphasising the
social principle that parks of equal status were to be accessible to all sections of London's
population. According to Burgess et al. (1988a), research in Greenwich questioned the
suitability of a hierarchical system of park provision at the local area level, arguing that
local communities did not recognise parks in terms of the differing functions that the
GLC park hierarchy assigned to them. They claimed that most people in their survey felt
that open spaces closest to their home failed to meet their leisure needs. This is a
considerable problem for local authority leisure service departments, when the scale of
public expenditure on open space and parks provision is examined at a London-wide
scale. The extent to which financial resources are meeting local recreational needs is an
important issue in view of the prioritisation of open space and park budgets of different
local authorities across the capital.
THE LONDON BOROUGH OF NEWHAM
Newham is an east London borough (http://www.newham.gov.uk/) created in the 1960s
from the amalgamation of two former town councils—West Ham and East Ham. The
area developed in the Victorian and Edwardian periods, with the extension of the London
Underground, the creation of the Royal Docks and other service/ utilities (e.g. the
Beckton Gas Works, Beckton Sewage Works and Railway Yards at West Ham and
Stratford) and manufacturing activities (e g Tate and Lyle in Silvertown) The population
