Quadron Services

Since February 2006 Quadron has been responsible for all grounds maintenance and associated activities within the Royal Borough of Kingston. The scope of the contract includes all elements of amenity horticulture and grass maintenance in parks, open spaces, housing areas and highways throughout the borough; sports pitch maintenance; children's play areas; security patrols; arboricultural works within parks. Many sites have permanent static presence; fees are taken for sports and allotments and bookings managed.

The Client set up is in four relatively independent Neighbourhoods: Quadron has mirrored the Client structure in order to achieve successful local relationships, not only with Client officers but also with the local interest groups.

A further feature of the contract is that the budget is managed on behalf of a range of internal client departments, all with their own priorities. In order to ensure a high quality of customer service and to meet the sometimes conflicting demands of all the various stakeholders, Quadron has employed both a Recreational Development and Horticultural Development Manager whose primary focus is on stakeholder liaison and gaining funding to develop both the horticultural and recreational elements of the contract.

In 2009 1.1m of Playbuilder Funding was secured by Andy Kauffman, Quadron's Horticultural Development Manager, to improve 18 existing playgrounds and create 4 new schemes. In addition, over 250k of funding gained from bodies such as the Heritage Lottery Fund and the London Marathon Trust has to date funded a trim trail, created a wildflower meadow in line with the new Green Spaces Strategy and improved housing planting schemes and local playground facilities. Andy has worked with local community groups to gain funding on their behalf and to teach them to be self-sustaining in the future. He has also promoted horticulture and vegetable growing in schools (see "New Malden Primary School Allotment Gardening Lessons!" download on the right for an example). Andy also works closely with the Client on projects such as the development of the Green Spaces Strategy, liaising with the contract management team to change working practices as necessary.

Following Andy's promotion to the corporate management team Hannah Reid, Kingston's new Horticultural Development Manager engaged with the Friends of Hogsmill Valley, Coombe Wood Residents Association and the Malden Rushett Residents Association to support them in their volunteer activities along with exploring potential funding streams for activities and projects in their area.

In 2011 Quadron's Recreational Development Manager secured funding in excess of 125k for the installation of a new playground at the Cambridge Road Housing Estate, 70k for the installation of a new outdoor gym at Churchfields Recreation Ground and in excess of 75k for a new outdoor gym and path network in Manor Park.  The installation of all three projects is being directly managed by Simon and Quadron.

Quadron was very proud for this partnership contract with the Royal Borough of Kingston upon Thames to have been awarded the Horticulture Week's Landscape & Amenity "Partnering Award" in 2009 for the best example of Partnership Working.

The Borough entered London in Bloom for the first time in 2006 and scored Bronze, increasing to Silver in 2007, with judges commenting that "The second year of a long term 14 year contract bodes well - it could deliver much of its potential.....a lot of new staff team members ... have re-invigorated the enthusiasm within the Borough. Watch this space in future years". Silver status was retained in 2008 and again in 2009 with a higher score on each occasion.  2010, 2011 and 2012 saw continued success with increasingly higher scores and the retention of our silver status. 

In March 2010, following four successful years working in partnership with the Royal Borough of Kingston upon Thames, Quadron was invited to take over the management of the borough's nine local nature reserves that had previously been managed in-house. These include some Scheduled Ancient Monuments (SAMs). One example is Castle Hill, the site of a 13th Century Moated Farmhouse. This is deemed by English Heritage as being under threat and Quadron is working with volunteers from the Lower Mole Countryside Project to improve the access in and around the site. Another SAM is Tolworthy Court Farm Medieval Moated Manor. All these sites are managed by Quadron with key work being done by our colleagues at Red Kite Conservation Services.

July 2010 saw success for the partnership with the award of the first two Green Flags! Canbury Gardens and Churchfields Recreation Ground were recognised as some of the country's best green spaces when they received this prestigious award. Judges were impressed with the well-maintained facilities, excellent use of green space and high standard of safety and security.

2011 saw Manor Park gain its first Green Flag, with the judges commenting on the strong community involvement in keeping facilities in use on the site and Quadron staff and apprentices being good ambassadors of the service.  Fishponds continued the trend when it was awarded its Green Flag in 2012.

In late 2011 the Kingston contract was one of Quadron contracts selected for audit for ISO 14001 accreditation.  Following successful company-wide accreditation the auditor commented that Kingston had a good level of awareness and 'buy in' to the Company's environmental policies and objectives.