Council does some more pruning thanks to austerity cuts

TWO of Liverpool's prized Victorian parks, Calderstones and Stanley Park, will be privatised under plans expected to be approved on Friday by Mayor Joe Anderson's mayoral cabinet.

Although the city council will retain the freeholds of the two parks, new operators will have to ensure they are run at zero cost to the council.

Currently it costs the public purse more than £156,000 a year to run Calderstones while the cost of running Stanley Park costs more than £185,000. The figures only relate to grounds maintenance costs and do not include staffing, utilities and depreciation costs.

The move has been prompted by massive cuts the city council receives from the government each year in grants to cover the cost of running the city.

A green light on a Friday will pave the way for to operators to be sought to run the two showpiece parks.

A way of running Liverpool’s parks follows the commissioning by Mayor Anderson of a Strategic Green and Open Space Review Board (SGOSRB) to explore a range of different financial models and operating systems to ensure the future of the city’s parks.

The board, chaired by former Brookside actor Simon O’Brien, made a number of recommendations in the final report which was published on 6 October, 2016. One of the reports key recommendations was to identify alternative ways to protect public parks from the ongoing cuts to public sector finances by exploring alternative management models, including trusts.