1. What is the total number of publicly accessible a) parks, b) village greens, c) community gardens, d) woodland, e) allotments, f) nature reserves currently in your local authority area, and what was the figure in 2009/10?
Devon County Council can confirm the following:
a) Public parks are generally the responsibility of City, District Councils or Unitary Authorities; so, we would recommend that your request for information on these should be re-directed to the relevant local authority. There is one exception to this in that Devon County Council (DCC) does own and manage two publicly accessible Country Parks (i.e. at Stover and the Grand Western Canal). The situation was the same in 2009/10. Contact details for City, District or Unitary Authorities can be found on our website at:
https://www.devon.gov.uk/neighbouring-authorities/
b) Village Greens – Devon County Council as the Commons Registration Authority (CRA) has 94 towns or villages registered in the registers of town or village greens. The figure in 2009 was 79.
c) Community Gardens – Devon County Council holds on information on these.
d) Woodland – Devon County Council holds no systematic record of publicly accessible woodlands. We do provide access to data on Forestry Commission sites which have a dedicated right of public access and, as such, are viewed as ‘Access Land’ under the terms of the Countryside and Rights of Way Act. The present location of these can be viewed on the DCC Environment Viewer at:
https://www.devon.gov.uk/environment/environmental-maps
Some other organisations have attempted to compile registers of such sites. One example is available on The Woodland Trust web site; however, this is unlikely to be comprehensive and will only hold information on the current position. This can be found at: https://www.woodlandtrust.org.uk/visiting-woods/
e) Allotments – Devon County Council holds no information on these. These are again the responsibility of City, District Councils or Unitary Authorities, please refer to our answer to question (a) above.
f) Nature Reserves – Devon County Council has specific responsibility for four Local Nature Reserves (at Stover, Grand Western Canal, Knapp Copse and part of Kynoch’s Foreshore); there were only three in 2009/10.
Further information on statutory nature reserves in Devon is available on the DCC Environment Viewer (link provided above), which covers National Nature Reserves (NNR)and Local Nature Reserves (LNR). All that we have available is the latest data made available by Natural England; we do not hold any further information for the position in 2009/10.
The Environment Viewer also identifies nature reserves managed by the Devon Wildlife Trust (i.e. at least those sites for which DWT has provided such data). There are many other nature reserves in Devon, such as those owned and /or managed by the RSPB, or other conservation organisations and local communities; no record of these is held by Devon County Council. Whilst the great majority of nature reserves have some degree of public access, some will not (e.g. Dendles Wood NNR, or part of the Dawlish Warren LNR). Devon County Council does not hold definitive information on the access status of such sites, which will have to be requested directly from the relevant organisation.
2. What is the total number of publicly accessible a) parks, b) village greens, c) community gardens, d) woodland, e) allotments, f) nature reserves in your local authority area for which members of the public are charged to access (including spaces which only charge for access on particular days of the year or for certain events), and what was the corresponding figure for each in 2009/10?
Please see our responses to question 1 above. Devon County Council has no sites that the public are charged to access.
3. What is your local authority’s total budget allocation for spend on a) parks, b) village greens, c) community gardens, d) woodland, e) allotments, f) nature reserves in your local authority area for 2017/18, and what was the total budget allocation for each in 2009/10?
In relation to village greens, Devon County Council does not actually ‘manage’ these, we only register them, so we can confirm there is no registered budget.
In relation to parks, community gardens, woodland and allotments, following on from our answer to question 1, we can confirm that there is no budget and we therefore hold no information.
In relation to country parks and nature reserves we can confirm the budget as follows:
2009/10: £320,782.79
2017/18: £642,937.35
4. How many staff are employed by your local authority to maintain or manage a) parks, b) village greens, c) community gardens, d) woodland, e) allotments, f) nature reserves, in your local authority area in the year 2017/18, and how many were employed for each in 2009/10?
In relation to village greens, parks, community gardens, woodland and allotments, please see our response to question 3 above.
In relation to country parks and reserves, we can confirm that 7 people have been employed since 2009/10. This has not altered.
5. What is the total number of publicly accessible a) parks, b) village greens, c) community gardens, d) woodland, e) allotments, f) nature reserves currently in your local authority area which have limited opening hours, and what was the figure in 2009/10?
Devon County Council doesn’t maintain any publicly accessible areas with limited opening hours; they remain accessible around the clock.
6. What is the current total area in km2 of publicly accessible a) parks, b) village greens, c) community gardens, d) woodland, e) allotments, f) nature reserves currently in your local authority area, and what was it in 2009/10?
Devon County Council does not hold this information and we would recommend you visit the same sources of information we indicated in our response to question 1.
7. What was the total number of publicly accessible a) parks, b) village greens, c) community gardens, d) woodland, e) allotments, f) nature reserves currently in your local authority area for which the management or services are provided by an outside organisation rather than the local authority, and what was the corresponding figure for each in 2009/10?
We can confirm the answer is nil in relation to the Devon County Council managed country parks and nature reserves that we referred to in our response to question 1. We do not hold the information in relation to any other locations.