Be a friend of your local park

Want to be involved in improving your local park?  ‘Friends of Parks’ groups work with the Council’s Greenspace team to create better open spaces.  Each group helps care for a specific park or green space in the borough.

Through the partnership, park users get a greater say in what goes on in their local parks.  Friends can get involved in improving:

  • The park’s appearance
  • Facilities in the park
  • The conservation value of the park
  • The safety of the park

View the Friends of Parks newsletter

Why join a Friends Group?

The groups are a great way to:

  • Meet new people
  • Make a positive contribution to your local area
  • Get exercise, improve your health and wellbeing
  • Tackle vandalism and crime in parks
  • Influence future improvements to the park
  • Apply for funding to improve the park
  • Organise community events
  • Access training
  • Enhance your skills
  • Improve your employment prospects

What can a Friends Group do?

The activities of a Friends Group are varied and are largely up to the group to decide.  Friends Groups can be involved in:

  • Promoting their park and providing feedback to park staff and the Greenspace team
  • Helping with anything from planting bulbs and conservation tasks to litter picking and tidy up days
  • Organising local community events such as family fun days, arts events, music in the park
  • Fundraising: accessing grants and lottery monies for the benefit of the park
  • Carrying out user surveys and collecting local views about the park
  • Designing information and educational leaflets about the park (such as a guide to trees / plants in the park; a local history of the park)
  • Producing and updating an information website
  • Contributing to the production of parks management plans and being involved in consultation about future improvements to their park

All Waltham Forest residents are welcome to join a ‘Friends Group’ – or help establish one.

Help for new and existing Friends Groups

The council has commissioned Groundwork East London, an environmental charity, to support existing Friends Groups and to help residents set up new Friends Groups for park and open spaces across the borough.  Groundwork East London (GWEL) will advise your group on how to adopt a constitution and set up a committee.  Training and support will be provided, as well as information on how your group can raise funds from various sources.

If you would like to know more about Friends Groups, please contact sam.alexander@groundworkeastlondon.org or call Sam Alexander at Groundwork East London on 020 8985 1755.

Setting up a new Friends Group

If you are interested in setting up a new group, please contact Sam Alexander at Groundwork East London who will advise you. sam.alexander@groundworkeastlondon.org or 020 8985 1755

An important issue to keep in mind is that parks are for the benefit of the whole community and it will be important to ensure that your group represents the views of a cross section of the community in terms of age, gender and sexuality, ethnicity and religion, ability and disability, etc.

You may also want to have a look through some of the information below on how to get going.

Useful contacts