Region's parks ranked for priority

TOP park means top priority in the Southern Downs Regional Council's new open-space ranking system.

Six-year-old Tori Howlett loves playing at Leslie Park which is classed as a number one park. Picture: Erin Smith

TOP park means top priority in the Southern Downs Regional Council's new open-space ranking system which will be used to determine the level of maintenance each park is entitled to.

Manager of Parks and Major Projects Michael Bell said all parks across the region were placed in an order of importance from one to five; with one being the most important.

A draft report put before council yesterday showed where the region's 162 parks were placed on the hierarchy.

Only six parks took out the top spot.

There were 18 parks placed second on the ladder.

The majority of parks (51 per cent) were given a ranking of three.

Mr Bell said the manual was to act as a maintenance guide.

"From this hierarchy, the level of expected service has been developed taking into consideration the community's expectations, reasonableness and cost to deliver these services against pre-defined targets," he said.

"The primary purpose of this manual is to act as a guide for assessing, determining and assigning a reasonable response by council to a maintenance issue," he said.

The draft report outlines response times for various maintenance issues including pruning, irrigation, fencing, weed control and mowing.

It states grass in a number one ranked park had to be cut within five days of it reaching 100mm in height. In a fourth ranked park the grass could grow to 300m and council had 25 days to respond.

Mr Bell said urgent situations would be dealt with right away regardless of the ranking.

"If the litter was found to be sharps, then this would be addressed straight away 100% of the time," he said.

The most important parks will be inspected weekly, the second ranked parks monthly while the least important parks will be inspected every second year.

RANKING CLASSIFICATIONS

Ranking 1: Significant open spaces that generally contain playgrounds and require intensive maintenance.

Ranking 2: Major open spaces that generally contain a playground or sporting field, trees, mulched gardens and manicured areas

Ranking 3: Community open space that caters for travellers and contains trees, lawn areas and mulched gardens.

Ranking 4: Passive open space used by public for recreational purposes.

Ranking 5: Non-active areas of open space that are infrequently used by the community, which may include bushland or reserves.

Originally published as Region's parks ranked for priority