Quadron Services

Quadron is responsible for all grounds maintenance and associated activities within the Borough of Kingston. The main Client manages budgets on behalf of a range of internal clients including housing, highways, schools, libraries, social services and bereavement services. Furthermore there is a strong focus on neighbourhood working with local communities asserting their independence and desiring control of their local services.

In order to ensure a high quality of customer service and to focus upon meeting the often conflicting demands of so many different stakeholders, Quadron's first response was to provide a structure reflecting the Client's own structure so that each neighbourhood and each client department has its own point of contact to facilitate fast local response.

Over and above that, Quadron's solution was to employ a Horticultural Development Manager. Free of commercial pressures or the need to deliver a frequency determined specifiation, this post holder is able to work with the local action groups and sports leagues to gain funding for and develop the services and facilities that they desire.

Customer Care - The Horticultural Development Manager provides an enhanced level of customer care and is able to liaise individually with all the separate groups to establish their needs and areas of concern, and then, working with the operational contract management, to translate these into amendments to the operational plan to better meet the aspirations of each group.

Function of role - The prime objective of Quadron's Horticultural Development Manager is to develop the horticultural content of the Borough's parks, open spaces, wayside gardens, housing estates and highway verges and to communicate with all the various stakeholder groups to ensure all their interests are given consideration. In addition he provides a focal point for the promotion of horticulture by providing a lead on such events as the In Bloom competitions and Green Flag awards in order to both promote and increase public awareness of horticulture in the community.

Funding opportunities - The Horticultural Development Manager also seeks funding for the development of parks and open spaces. Substantial funding has been gained from the Heritage Lottery Fund, London Marathon Trust and similar organisations since the beginning of the contract. This money has been used to develop a new trim trail, a disabled allotment gardening facility, to create a wildflower meadow in line with the new Green Spaces Strategy and to improve housing planting schemes and local playground facilities. Future improvements include a new Multi Use Games facility with £66.5k from the London Marathon Trust.

Tolworth Disabled Garden scheme

Working with the Client - A specific example of the achievements of Quadron's Horticultural Development Manager is his assistance with the production and development of Kingston's Green Spaces Strategy, liaising with Client officers and ensuring that operational practices are amended as necessary. He is particularly focussed upon Community Engagement issues, communicating with tenant groups and various voluntary groups and liaising with other service providers such as the Streetscene team, Neighbourhood Police and other relevant partners.