(Letter from Friends of Walkden Gardens, Sale, to the national Future of Public Parks Inquiry launched by Communities and Local Government Select Committee).

IN 2013 the Friends were awarded the Queen’s Voluntary Award in recognition of the work they had done, with Trafford Council, to turn a neglected garden into the award winning Walkden Gardens of today. It features in the Reader’s Digest book of Gardens to Visit, is a regular Green Flag Winner, and is the subject of videos, photoshoots, a Royal visit and a visit from the Japanese Ambassador to its rare Japanese Garden.

It is a garden on the Hidcote style of different 'rooms' providing a variety of garden experiences. The community writes about it, gives it a Tripadvisor Commendation, bequeaths and donates funds, picnics and enjoys its tranquillity, squeezed between two busy roads. Volunteers work on projects and garden maintenance on regular gardening mornings. Shows and touring theatre on its Theatre Lawn are well attended and its Christmas event attracts hundreds, involving school choirs and carol singing in front of the historic Dovecote, moved there in 2001.

Trafford Council, whichever group has had control, has been supportive of this valuable asset. As Government cuts reduced local authority funds, the gardens have lost their attached gardener, replaced by a team working intermittently on the gardens. Physical damage to plants and trees are evident, despite their best efforts, and some of the community have been critical. This has followed the council’s decision to form a 15-year contract with a private company, encompassing, highways, waste disposal as well as the upkeep of the Borough’s green-spaces. The company has also to satisfy their shareholders.

Parks and gardens are a proven source of public health and well being, gifted by philanthropists who never envisaged the day when local authorities would run out of funds to maintain them.

Organising such rich horticultural resources on a regular basis would be a huge commitment for any mutual or community group.

Helping on a Saturday morning, when available, is not an option, when a trust has many legal issues to take on with the employment/recruitment of professional gardeners, health and safety of regular visitors, including children, safeguarding the valuable plants and advertising and funding.

Charging admission would be divisive and against the spirit of community garden spaces.

The Government should seriously consider making the upkeep of assets like Walkden Gardens across the country a statutory function and provide finance accordingly. This would remove risk and doubt and ensure that health and well being, the aesthetic and physical enjoyment of such spaces continue in this country as they do in other European countries.

The Friends of Walkden Gardens, Sale,