Green Space Management and Maintenance

The Green Spaces Strategy establishes the role a local authority plays in directing the management of green spaces and offers guidance for the future development of its parks and open spaces.

Well designed and maintained parks and open green spaces make for a better quality of life, and over the next 2 years Public Health England aims to see an increase in the number of green spaces available as well as the improvement of existing areas. Transforming open land and run down open spaces into parks, sports areas and green space would encourage more social interaction and active healthy lifestyles. More responsibility must be taken by local authorities to improve public health and wellbeing and reduce health inequalities. There is growing evidence to suggest that physical and mental health can be improved through greater access to green space, which is unequally distributed across England, and this contributes to health inequalities. The most affluent areas have as much as five times the amount of green space than the most deprived.

Local authorities need to take action on these issues by creating new areas of green space and improving the quality of existing areas. The maintenance of these areas is equally as important as the design and creation and so the standard of a local authority’s management and upkeep of the green spaces in its care should be decided and planned well before the project is completed.

A Green Space Management and Maintenance Plan should include information about the team who are responsible for the day-to-day management of the park or green space and what will be required of them on a daily, weekly and monthly basis. Ensuring that the spaces maintained are kept to a good standard requires the use of quality Grounds Maintenance Machinery.

Ransomes Jacobsen® is recognised for high quality, competitive products and the most comprehensive range of turf care equipment in the business.

It’s not easy making purchasing decisions on specialised equipment such as lawnmowers. Ransomes manufactured the world’s first lawnmower, the “Budding’s Patent” in 1832, and still engineer and build machines in the U.K. by experts with 186 years’ experience in the municipal industry.

Here are three top tips to get you started:

Make sure you are purchasing the right mower for the job. Every machine is different, and there will be one most suited to your intended use.
Get recommendations from other customers about their experiences.
Do some research into your local dealer to make sure you will receive great after-sales support.

Ransomes manufactures a range of mowers, designed to tackle a multitude of applications. There are several machines on offer, which have been developed to meet various demands.

MP493/ MP653/ MP653XC

Highly productive wide area rotary mowers, ideal for cutting overgrown areas and sports fields, whilst also giving you the ability to negotiate tight spaces.

MP495 / MP655

A robust and productive range of wide area cylinder mowers that leaves a pristine finish every time. Suitable for large fields, football and cricket pitches and travelling on roads when required.

HM600

The new HM600 tackles the irregular cuts, bringing lesser maintained areas back under control, whilst also capable of leaving a good, striped finish on sports pitches.

TR320

One of the lightest machines on the market, the TR320 is a fine turf mower perfect for sports pitches, courtyard areas, and negotiating tight spaces and school building surrounds.

What do customers say?

“The Ransomes MP495 is a great mower; it has a quiet cab, it’s easy and comfortable to drive, all of the controls are in the right place, and the air conditioning has been very handy with the hot temperatures!”- Trevor Wood, Operator, Blenheim Palace.

“Torfaen is a borough with lots of green, open spaces. The terrain is mountainous with many banks and inclines. Features such as Tilt Sensor Technology (TST) were particularly welcome as the safety of our operators is paramount. We spent a lot of time testing different machines to find out how each one coped in different areas, and the MP653 came out on top. The MP is the next generation of batwing rotary mowers; it is built for the road- everything about the machine has been geared towards our specific requirements.” – Steve Horseman, Street Scene Manager, Torfaen Council.

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