By Charles Randall
4 July 2014
The recent report from the Heritage Lottery Fund, highlighting the potential decline of public parks in the wake of council budget cuts, offered only fleeting remarks about sport, and there was no mention at all of cricket. But by implication cricket could suffer.
Ethnic league cricket has been flourishing over several decades on public parks and recreation grounds, mostly on Sundays, with London, Birmingham and Yorkshire the major focus areas. These leagues tend to be action-packed and family orientated, all too often rising above poorly maintained facilities as a genuine asset to the community.
The Club Cricket Conference has made great strides over the past year guiding these important ethnic leagues away from the fringes of recreational cricket into the ECB family so that more resources, such as grounds, can be accessed. So the Heritage Lottery Fund report, a survey from 2013 data, made some worrying points based on the pessimism of parks managers.
Among the key findings from the research 86 per cent of parks managers reported cuts to revenue budgets since 2010, a trend they expected to continue over the next three years. “This could mean park facilities such as cafes and toilets are closed or opening hours reduced, grass left uncut, flower beds left empty, play areas less regularly cleaned and inspected and more anti-social behaviour due to less park staff.” To this list might be added under-prepared cricket pitches and outfields.
The report said 45 per cent of local authorities were considering either selling parks and green spaces or transferring their management to others. “This could mean loss of some parks, parts of parks and other green spaces, management of parks being divided between different organisations, community groups being asked to take on larger parks and needing support to do so effectively.” It appeared that 81 per cent of council parks departments had lost skilled management staff since 2010 and 77 per cent had lost front-line staff.
The experience of the British Tamil Cricket League, operating in the London area within the M25, would probably be a snapshot of the problems faced by most Sunday park leagues. The state of hired grounds can vary wildly, perhaps depending on the skill and motivation of any particular park keeper, according to committee man M Thushaarah. “Pitch quality can be very very poor,” he said, “though sometimes they might be done efficiently. Toilets might go unrepaired and uncleaned, which means families cannot really attend matches, and that is a great pity. Pitches can sometimes be dangerous so that young players cannot play safely. Outfields might be left unmown. The councils put up prices, but the facilities often aren't properly maintained.”
The report said that over the last three years most local authorities raised their charges for the use of facilities in parks. In fact 83 per cent of park managers reported increasing fees for sports pitches, car parks, allotments, the hire of grounds or buildings for private events, and similar items. And 85 per cent of managers intend to increase fees in the next three years.
The report made the point that while revenue generating needed to be part of the mixed economy that could support parks in future, charges needed to be balanced against provision of accessible services to as wide a range of people as possible. The cost of hiring sports facilities was increasing at a time when there was urgent need to promote active lifestyles to tackle obesity and poor health.
Alf Langley, chairman of the Club Cricket Conference, said: “Parks cricket is nurturing a large number of active players, and we would like this to continue without the prospect of deteriorating facilities or even the loss of grounds.”
At the moment public parks are enjoying a boom, according to the report - a 20-year renaissance as a result, in part, of £700 million of Lottery investment. “However, local authorities have no statutory requirement to fund and maintain them. Neither is there a national coordinating body able to champion the importance of parks, to assert their value to communities and the economy, and protect them for future generations to enjoy.”
Shockingly a significant number of authorities are considering selling or transferring management of their parks and green spaces over the next three years. The report claimed that, on top of the 45 per cent of local authorities considering disposing of some green spaces, 19 per cent of local authorities specifically mentioned disposing of parks, as opposed to 'other' green spaces.
One estimate suggests that 34 million people make regular visits to parks, making them one of the UK’s most heavily used public services.
State of the Parks 2014
http://www.hlf.org.uk/aboutus/howwework/Documents/StateOfUKParks2014_advocacy.pdf