Context 167 - March 2021

C O N T E X T 1 6 7 : M A R C H 2 0 2 1 41 HELEN MONGER and DAVID LAMBERT Memorials and public parks The proposal to site a UK Holocaust Memorial and Learning Centre adjacent to the Palace of Westminster exemplifies important themes common to many parks. In November 2020, a planning inquiry con- sidered the merits of siting a UK Holocaust Memorial and Learning Centre within Victoria Tower Gardens, the Grade II registered public park on Millbank, adjacent to the Palace of Westminster. The case exemplifies important themes affecting many parks, including memori- alisation; assessing amenity value; the protection of heritage; and the tensions between these themes – and the challenges of maintenance and running costs. This year’s lockdown saw a major spike in visitor numbers to public parks as all other forms of recreation were closed down. Suddenly they were front page news, and the secretary of state insisted: ‘People need parks. That’s why I have made it clear to councils that all parks must remain open.’ 1 It was great to see parks fully recognised as essential services, but less than great to see no additional funding channelled into the cost of keeping them open. 2020 has dramatically illustrated the failure of government policy for park funding. Since 2010, the budgets of local authorities respon- sible for the upkeep of the vast majority of public parks have been relentlessly cut: many parks departments have seen reductions of 60 per cent or more in their annual budgets. The cost of making parks Covid-secure, and of the additional patrols and litter-collection, has torpedoed parks budgets, especially in the most deprived urban areas of the country, where use was heaviest.The double-whammy is that at the same time revenue completely evaporated from events, activities and sports, on which park services have become increasingly dependent. Parks maintenance is a non-statutory local ser- vice, and budgets are almost certain to be cut further as councils struggle with the ongoing impact of Covid-19. 2 Putting new monuments into parks creates features needing additional maintenance costs. Other contested memorials The Holocaust Memorial proposal was not the only public memorial to hit the headlines in 2020. Two statues were at the centre of debate about memorialisation in public space: the tearing down of the Colston statue in Bristol as part of Black Lives Matter protests in June; and the erection of the Mary Wollstonecraft statue at Newington Green by Maggi Hambling in November. In the case of the Edward Colston memorial, An image of the proposed UK Holocaust Memorial and Learning Centre submitted to the planning inquiry in October 2020 1 www.gov.uk/ government/speeches/ communities-secretary- robert-jenrick-on- covid-19-response-18- april-2020 2 The Perambulator (author), ‘Attacking the lungs: Covid and the state of parks,’ The London Gardener, Journal of the London Historic Parks and Gardens Trust , Vol 24, 2020