In March 2011, Quadron was delighted to learn that two of Kingston upon Thames' Parks had gained awards in the first Mayors Safer Parks Awards, with Canbury Gardens achieving Silver and Victoria Recreation Ground, Bronze.
The Award recognises and promotes new and existing good practice in tackling anti-social behaviour in London Parks and, to achieve these awards, achievement had to be demonstrated in areas such as community involvement in the upkeep of the park, clear procedures for dealing with responding to issues and concerns and an improvement in levels of antisocial behaviour and perceived safety levels.
Under the Quadron Kingston Partnership a working party has been set up at Canbury Gardens made up of a broad range of community representatives including the local MO and Councillors, the local police, the local residents' association and volunteers from the London Probation Service. All take an active part in helping to make the park a safer place for the whole community in line with the Borough's Green Spaces Strategy and Canbury Gardens' individual site development plan.
Andy Kauffman, Quadron Horticultural Development Manager comments, "As a group we are in constant communication and are able to deal with issues of crime and anti-social behaviour as they arise. We also work proactively onsite using annual work plans to carry out tasks like crown lifting trees to give clear views for onsite CCTV, as well as involving residents, probation services and The Thames Landscape Strategy to maintain the towpath with support of volunteers."
Local residents and PCSOs help with a community litter pick.
For further information on the Mayor's Safer Park Award, please see the link to the right of this page.