Spelling out Good Practice
Meeting notes from seminar 17th July 2003

Present:
Oscar Ford LB T Hamlets	Mathew Frith Peabody Trust		Kate Coss LWT
Caroline Richards LWT	Annie Chipchase LWT		Nick Ely LB Newham
Terry Lyle T .H. Env Trust	Stephen Smith Grosvenor Est. 	Jill Goddard Lewisham
Nick Burton LPGSF		Mike Brain LB Bexley			Nick Biddle RPA
Nigel Reeve RPA		Catherine Millar FCFCG		William Moreno LBP
Fiona Sim GCP		Ros Brewer LB T.Hamlets		Paul Thomas Groundw’k
Judith John LB Bromley	Peter Sibley LPGT			Jan Hewlett GLA

1. Nick Burton, Director London Parks and Greenspaces Forum – explained his role and introduced the Forum’s business plan.

2. Presentation by Peter Sibley – Spelling out good practice

a) General principles
A useful source: ILAM Model contracts for sustainable management vol I and II £225

Types of contract – frequency, performance and output – 2nd of these tends to be preferred, but may be harder to cost. Some organisations include elements by instruction, which works better if good supervision is possible.

Cost: Need to avoid going for cheapest regardless (Nic Biddle); need to spend what it costs. Best Value allows a balance between need for quality and cost (CCT required lowest bid)
Allow for inflation – index linked.

Avoiding overspecification, don’t’ be too precise e.g. on grass height (say 25-45mm). Aim for an average of x mm (excluding flower heads). Nic Burton - A rectification notice can be served if grass is close to xmm, requiring contractor to cut by a certain date.
 
Chemicals -Products should not be named as such, contract should be aimed at the result.

Flexibility – minor flexibility must be allowed for, major changes require negotiation. In worst case client includes a legal clause giving him a right to change.

Penalties work should be done to a points scheme, if contractor fails, options incl reducing payment, or failing to award the next year’s contract. Bonus for work well done.

Weather - Allow for varying weather – rain and drought

Integration – e.g. if you have areas of shorter and longer grass where litter collects in the longer grass, need to specify that this should be cleared. Require litter pick before grass cutting.

Personnel – clauses may give details of personnel, but often people will change during time of contract. Temps may replace longer term staff. Needs monitoring. Skills base has declined since CCT came in. Contract can include requirement for staff training, which may be funded by the client.

Green waste – contractor will require guidance if green waste is to be separated- and why.

Aiming upwards – aim for a rising spiral in quality of management, not a static repeat.

Specialist work may require specialist contractor, don’t necessarily use the same one for everything e.g. ecological management by ecol. specialists. This is not necessarily more expensive.
Sometimes new approaches are best tried on a pilot plot.
Similarly specialists may be needed for special historic collections.
Arboricultural work is often separated, also water bodies. Silviculture in woodland may be different from street trees.
Demarkation between contracts can be an issue where two contractors meet e.g. formal and wild landscape management.

b) Grassland management
Public generally prefer short grass.
Spring meadows make for good conservation practice, the late June cut reduces fire risk in the summer.
Alternative is a single late summer/autumn cut.
Meadow regimes require different machinery from short turf – cylinder mowers can’t cope. A flail type is required. If scrub has invaded heavy-duty equipment is needed.
Contractors tend to prefer to cut tight – may leave bald patches – guidance is needed.

Jill G – timing of meadow cut can be tricky, if contractor doesn’t know how to assess the state of flowering, and ecologist isn’t on hand to direct.

Managing for small mammals - Need for a mosaic of heights
Specialist invertebrates – take account of diurnal behaviour, avoid early morning with stag beetles, when they are dozy. Need to leave arisings for small inverts to escape. This needs spelling out.
Ground nesting birds e.g. skylark, corncrake (?in London) need special approach

Machinery – as machinery gets heavier, soil compaction problems increase. Small equipment needed if you want contractor to avoid cutting wildflowers (e.g. cowslip example, Honor Oak).
Speed of mowing machinery an issue re health and safety.

Grassland management for specialist sports:
Bowling greens  - 15000/yr to maintain, lumbricide used to kill earthworms. 
Cricket pitch – wicket area may cost 5000/yr.
Golf greens – these areas tend to be heavily treated with chemicals

c) Hedges
Management must reflect style – formal/informal, rural/urban etc
Don’t cut in breeding season – 1st and last cuts should take account of local climate and breeding birds
Some ornamental hedges are trimmed at other times.
Trapezoid shape was widely seen to be one of the best – thick at the bottom. This also helps to supress dominant branches.
Leaves can be allowed to accumulate at the foot of a thick bottomed hedge.
Specialist contractor may be needed for fancy hedges e.g. domes.
Need to specify if you want emergent trees to be allowed to grow up.
Some species need hand cutting e.g. cherry laurel.

Leaf collection – this is seen as controversial - bad news for hedgehogs. We need to check the public’s expectations e.g. in hedges and shrubberies.

d) Coppicing 
Some discussion on how to cut, leaving low stumps or flush with ground, or taking a proportion of the stool down to ground level. 

Tree suckers -Some trees, if they have to be felled, can be encouraged to re-grow from suckers e.g. limes -– allowing a sucker to re-grow from a tree in an avenue means you will get new trees with same form as the original tree and others in the avenue in the longer term.
But be aware that some varieties sucker too much e.g. white poplar and sumach tree.

e) Ditches 
These tend to get left out of contracts, but are important habitat features. Best to cut banks in alternate years – keeps scrub down without total loss of cover. 
Must keep them open and unblocked. Clearance should be rotational.
Take account of locally important species.
MF – emphasised need to manage gradually, thereby avoiding local extinctions.
Need to include clause which requires contractor to refrain from dumping stuff in ditches e.g. japanese knotweed cuttings.

f) Weeds and Chemicals
Hedges should need none. Encourage contractor to minimise use generally. Some contracts feature regular use of herbicides whether or not a need is shown. e.g. Casaron which is used in flower beds, rose beds and hedges to supress weeds. It forms a barrier in the soil through which seedlings can’t grow. Remains for six months. Best to specifiy herbicides should only be used when so instructed.

Better to aim for weed control via good management.

Really difficult weeds e.g. Japanese knotweed? Peter S. referred to a method developed at Rothamsted involving cutting in early August, then spraying with glyphosate at the end of the growing season, so that the chemical remains in the roots over winter and supresses re-growth in spring. This may have to be repeated over several years. A vegetable oil adjutant helps to get the chemical to adhere to the leaves. TL has had success through late-year treatment in Tower Hamlets and its almost gone.

Nic Burton had experience of a pesticide reduction strategy in Southwark- the contractor was required to make a case for the use of chemicals. This reduced use substantially, mainly to special land uses e.g. bowling greens.

Insect pests e.g. brown tailed moth – may have to treat e.g. by playgrounds as irritant.

Winter sand gravel and salt – problems if dumped near trees. SS had lost trees in this way at Belgrave Square.

g) Other matters
NR noted lack of wildlife monitoring, hence little evidence of what has actually changed. Monitoring needs greater resource allocation.
NB - We need to compare results of different techniques e.g. whether whips planted are given top soil dressing or not.
Ignorance on part of contractors’ staff is seen to be a key problem. Likewise lack of training. Improving training is seen as a key.
Need for costing as part of management plans – will aid funding bids.