Update on park improvements

April 6, 2023
|In News
|By Chris Norris

April 2023

Last year, Lambeth Council announced a £950,000 capital investment in improvements to Ruskin Park over the next few years, informed in part by a strategic masterplan completed in 2019. You can read our last updates from August 2022 and from our Annual General Meeting in January 2023. Friends of Ruskin Park has been attending the Steering Group to give a voice for park users. This is our report of the current progress by Lambeth:

Playground

  • Lambeth still intends to refurbish the playground in autumn 2023. Its size will be increased and it will be designed to have more appeal to older children. You can read about the planned range of equipment here.
  • We (and local councillors) have asked Lambeth to give greater thought to landscaping around the playground including improvements to the area in front of the kiosk. They have now engaged a landscape architect to help with the design, which should be shared by the early summer.
  • The kiosk and both sets of toilets will also be renovated, including providing an accessible toilet.

Stable block

  • We are encouraged by a new commitment from Lambeth (in addition to the capital programme) to fund works to the derelict stable block but remain cautious given the history of this project. This funding is not expected to fund the full refurbishment but to bring the building to a condition where an occupier can take on the building. We will be taking a keen interest in what happens next.

Paths

  • A condition survey of paths in the park has been carried out, with re-surfacing of the worst areas to be undertaken this year.

Redgra

  • As raised at the AGM we have expressed concerns both to Lambeth and the Football Foundation about the impact of replacing the redgra pitch with a larger (9 a side) artificial grass pitch rather than a smaller (7 a side) pitch. The larger option would significantly reduce space for informal football and other games such as basketball and netball. Lambeth has committed to looking at the options in more detail once a new council officer has started in post.

We will give further reports as more information is available.

If you have any queries or comments about the programme, please email Lambeth Council, parks@lambeth.gov.uk.

If you have any comments for the Friends of Ruskin Park, please email info@friendsofruskinpark.org.uk. We will read and listen to all views, but may not be able to respond to all emails.