Flower Power

If you are seeking to raise your spirits at a time of economic doom and gloom, you could do worse than look to 'Help a London Park'. The programme, set up by the Mayor of London, gave Londoners the chance to vote by text, online r through the post, for which ten of forty-seven London parks should receive a grant of up to £400,000 to make them 'cleaner, safer, greener, and nicer places to visit'. The winners, announced today, were the two parks in each of five London sub-regions North West, North, North East, South East and South West), which got the most votes. Voting closed at the end of January - with 110,000 votes cast - and the results are available here.
'Help a London Park' is one of the most significant experiments in the world of giving citizens a direct say in how public money is allocated between potential projects - borrowing in part from participatory budgetting approaches. It comes with another nice aspect that, unlike for most things, children were (as far as I can see) allowed to vote. The process has come into criticism for various reasons including that it is not 'proper' participative budgeting due to the lack of deliberative processes and concerns over the security of the vote. Let's hope though that these criticisms do not undermine the fact that, whether by accident or design, the programme has sparked a wealth of new collaborative social networks and activity at a very local level across London. In part, this has been driven by councils campaigning for residents to vote for parks in their area, giving them a great opportunity to also open up a conversation with residents about the development plans for individual parks. Examples of activities that are taking place include:

• Bromley Council encouraging shoppers and commuters to vote.
• Many councils used council newsletters to campaign for their parks (e.g. Havering).
• Southwark Council set up a Facebook group, which gained over 1,000 members, to campaign for Burgess Park (which was shortlisted for a separate award of £2 million to be chosen by the Mayor and a panel of experts), Camberwell Green and Dickens Park.  The council also organised events in Camberwell Green and Dickens Park to celebrate the parks shortlisting and encourage more people to vote.
• A delegation of primary school children visited City Hall to express support for their local park.

While the activity by local councils has largely been through traditional routes, it has been complemented by a flurry of very local activity, not least on Facebook where groups in support of different parks' bids have sprung up to promote them. The 'Vote for Bunny Park' group, contained an impressive 1,424 members at last count in support of Brent River Park (Ealing), was the largest group supporting a park I found. A trawl of Facebook, produced a total of twenty-one groups of varying sizes supporting parks across London.

Many of the Facebook groups have a real buzz and sense of pride, with members sharing memories, posting links to media coverage of the campaign and even organising local leafleting. A member of the 'I'm voting for Mayow Park' group reports that 'Friends of Mayow Park' distributed 6,000 leaflets in support of the campaign. Another group includes a discussion forum headed 'Is Waddon the greatest place in the world?' and a supporter of Arnos Park writes 'ahhhh happy days down at the park for me, apart from running round it for PE!!!!!'.The groups include local residents and their friends; past residents; council officers; local councillors and MPs; and members of local community groups amongst others. Have a look for yourself at some of the Facebook groups below to get a flavour of the activity that has been generated.

'Help a London Park' looks like it will help a thousand flowers bloom, both literally and figuratively, demonstrating how imaginative use of funds can have wide-ranging positive catalytic effects. However, I can't help but think that an opportunity has been missed to harness all the energy and excitement that has been expressed. The programme seems to be too direct an attempt to translate the X-factor to the civic arena, without enought thought of how wider social benefits could be unlocked. As well as encouraging Londoners to vote, 'Help a London Park' could have done more to encourage people to come together to build new links and improve their local area. It could have been used to systematically promote a wide range of activities, from joining a running group to volunteering or building civic skills. Some ideas for how this might have been done include:

• Sending every voter a text, e-mail or letter with suggestions of how they can campaign for their park (e.g. getting a friend to vote, putting a poster in their window, setting up a Facebook group, knocking on their neighbours' doors, organising a leafleting session or an event in their park). This would have the advantage of both getting more people involved and helping build civic skills that might later be used in other areas.
• Suggesting other ways of supporting their local park or getting involved in activities (e.g. volunteering to help improve it, donating to a fund in support of it or joining an activity group that uses the park).
• Promoting groups and activities in parks (e.g. running groups etc).
• Allowing campaigns in support of parks to registers on the 'Help a London Park' website so voters can connect directly with other people supporting their park's campaign.
• Allowing campaigns to get 'bonus points' for organising specific activities (e.g. an event attended by 100 people to support the campaign or a clear up of part of a park) that build new social networks or help improve the park.

These are just a few ideas, and doubtless there are many other good ones that could be added to the list. The point is that these voting processes should be thought of as a way of fostering greater community interaction, creativity and action, rather than simply a new way of allocating resources or empowering individual residents alone. Hopefully, all the energy that has been released by 'Help a London Park' won't be allowed to fizzle out but contribute to building better local communities across London.

Facebook Groups supporting London parks

Below is a list of Facebook groups supporting parks that I could find. It is unlikely to be exhaustive (try searching for South Park on Facebook!) or even necessarily a good indicator of online support (since it obviously ignores online activity on other websites, e-mail lists etc). The membership numbers are approximate as of the last time I checked them (3rd March). At first sight, a number of the parks with active Facebook groups have won.

North West
Brent River Park (Ealing)
Vote for Bunny Park (1,424 members)
Vote for Brent River Park Ealing to get funding (13 members)

Pinkwell Park
Vote for Pinkwell Park to receive a £400,000 magical makeover (6 members)

Southall Manor House Grounds
Vote for Southall Manor House Grounds (18 members)
North

Arnos Park
Vote for Arnos Park (260 members) 

Barnard Park
Vote here to get £400k for Barnard Park http://www.london.gov.uk/parksvote/ (422 members)

Elthorne Park
Friends of Elthorne Park (51 members)

Lordship Recreation Ground
VOTE NOW for Lordship Recreation Ground (150 members)
Vote for Lordship Rec in Tottenham! (38 members)
Vote for Lordship Rec!!! (6 members)

Shoreditch Park
Vote for Shoreditch Park (42 member)
Shoreditch Park needs your Votes (27 members)

North East

Fairlop Waters Country Park
Please support Fairlop Waters Country Park Vote online or by text (81 members)

The Greenway
The Greenway needs you! (20 members)

Harrow Lodge Park
Vote for Harrow Lodge Park (53 members)

South East

Avery Hill
Vote for Avery Hill Park! (467 members)

Maryon Park
Friends of Maryon Park (22 members)

Mayow Park
I'm voting for Mayow Park (108 members)

Burgess Park
Back the Burgess Park Bid - we need Boris's millions! (1,133 members)

South West

Vote for Wandsworth's Parks (2 members)

Wandle Park
Vote for Wandle Park - the eden of waddon (130 members)