Description of works:
Provision of Grounds maintenance and arboricultural services contract to parks, open spaces, sports facilities and cemeteries etc. This contract runs side by side of our separate contract with Chester & District Housing Trust (C&DHT).
As a result of operating these two contracts together, we clearly have grass areas to cut side-by-side, one owned by Chester City Council and the other owned by Chester and District Housing. The contract covers a wide range of maintenance tasks to public parks, open spaces, cemeteries in Blacon and Overleigh, historical landmarks, trees and woodlands and allotments etc. including Grosvenor Park, Alexander Park, Westminster Park and the Roman Amphitheatre, Town Centre Floral Displays, and nine hole pitch and putt, sport pitches and bowling greens.
The main ornamental park at Chester is Grosvenor Park, which is regarded as one of the finest examples of Victorian Parks in the north west of England. The park which was designed by Edward Kemp was opened in 1867 and much of the original design and features remain today, including formal avenues lined with trees and statues, large sweeping lawns surrounded by ornamental shrub and floral bedding displays. The park features highly in Chester in Bloom and Britain in Bloom events and given it’s central location in the city and close proximity to the historical and shopping centre, attracts many residents and visitors to the city.
The specification
The specification for the grounds maintenance service defines minimum standards, which must be achieved by the contractor, with some of the tasks been performance based and others frequency led. These horticultural operations are carried out by a static team based at the park, and the contract also requires the contractor to provide a full-time presence at the park to undertake a traditional Park Attendants role seven days a week.
With the exception of the Park Attendant, the horticultural team were transferred to Vale Contract Services Ltd from the previous incumbent contractor in 2005 and since then we have been working on an overall objective of changing the culture of the parks staff and improving the quality and standards of workmanship.
The project continues to be successful, both in terms of raising the horticultural standards and quality of workmanship and also providing a human presence in the park during day light hours 365 days a year.
The main tasks of the project were:
- Changing the culture of the transferred employees to think about quality of workmanship and park users as customers.
- Maintaining the park to a high standard despite the increasing use of the park by customers and visitors to Chester.
- Raising the standards of maintenance to a level not previously seen in the park for sometime and endeavouring to exceed expectations.
- Amending the Park Attendant duties to include an element of horticultural duties aimed at putting the “finishing touches” to park, i.e. path sweeping, edging off.
- Increasing the visibility of the Park Attendant and within reason dealing with any anti social behaviour in the park.
BALI Award for Grounds Maintenance of Public Grounds
As a direct result of Vale Contract Services commitment and dedication to the project, we have recently received the 2007 BALI Award for Grounds Maintenance of Public Grounds (Free Public Access) and aided Chester CC achieve the North West Britain in Bloom Award.
See photos above of the award winning grounds maintenance work at Grosvenor Park.