Preparing an options appraisal of models for providing high quality stewardship services to new and existing parks and green space in Cambridgeshire

Develop a range of solutions and organisational options that aim to establish the right stewardship model for Cambridgeshire and Peterborough:

Enables planning for the long term - establishing an operating model and financial arrangements that will resilient and as far as possible account for unknown future change;

Has a sound financial business model - making sure that the proposed business model is able to manage the risks associated with fluctuating service provision costs and is not too reliant on unreliable income streams;

Ensures community involvement and engagement - good stewardship is as much about engaging with local people as it is about managing the space. CPFPA is currently engaging with the communities in new developments across the area. Research to date has demonstrated that local people expect their green spaces to be maintained in line with the vision they have been sold;

Builds the capacity in all Councils and understanding viability - There are some Councils in Cambridgeshire that are advanced and experienced in their stewardship arrangements. However, the skills to negotiate these are not widely held and there is a need to upskill practitioners and stakeholders on stewardship across all local authorities in the area.

Establishes the right model for Cambridgeshire and Peterborough - Applying successful stewardship models requires engaging developers and delivery partners at an early stage. For most sites, the S106 agreement is the core opportunity to secure investment in stewardship and obligations related to management of place. Given the scale of planned development in Cambridgeshire and Peterborough understanding demand and supply for stewardship services and the range of issues between developers, Councils and communities is essential to get the model right. It will also be necessary to understand the range of existing organisations who may be best placed to deliver such as service.

Operates a clear and robust service charge mechanism - Understanding what rate to set service charges at, how to integrate them with endowments of land, property or capital funding, and whether to make them fixed etc is one of the core questions many places are tackling

Enables an integrated approach across Cambridge and Peterborough - the range of stakeholders that CPFPA have engaged with have all declared and interest how a good quality and consistent stewardship arrangement could be put in place on a whole area-wide basis. This was often raised along with the future requirements for biodiversity net gain that could be integrated with stewardship arrangements across the whole area.

Assumes that the initial model will not hold assets at the outset although that could be feature of the model in the medium to longer term.