Councils in the south of London are pushing for a change in legislation which forces them to contribute ‘significant’ sums to the upkeep of Lea Valley Park while their own parks suffer cuts.
The Lea Valley Regional Park Act 1966 allows the park authority to levy funds from other London councils to look after the park.
Introducing legislation to amend this Act, James Berry, MP for Kingston & Surbiton, said this funding arrangement was ‘not appropriate’ while other local authorities were cutting their parks budgets.
The Lea Valley Park’s overall levy to councils for 2017/18 is over £10m. Kingston Council has to contribute £160,730 to this – more than 10% of their own parks budget of £1.3m.
The levy on Kingston works out as £31.15 per park visitor, whereas Waltham Forrest residents — the borough where the park is located — only pay 32p per visitor.
‘Introducing this Bill is another step in the popular campaign run by our local newspaper and I was pleased that so many MPs, MLAs and council leaders have supported it,’ said Mr Berry.
‘Although Kingston’s Conservative council has rightly protected our parks budget, 92% of councils have had to cut their parks budget over the last 3 years.
‘Against this backcloth, it is not appropriate that the Lea Valley Park is funded to such a large extent by taxpayers from every London borough, regardless of how much or how little residents from that borough use the park.’
