Vale of White Horse District Council
Abbey House, Abbey Close,
Abingdon, OX14 3JE
Email: comments@whitehorsedc.gov.uk
Telephone: 01235 520202

Vale of White Horse District Council

The Parks Team promise to customers

Whatever the service, whichever way they contact us, we promise our customers to:

• Deal with enquiries in a friendly, helpful and courteous manner;
• Treat everyone equally and without discrimination;
• Provide accurate and timely information;
• Treat any information given to us or held by us sensitively and discreetly, respecting any confidentiality;
• Meet the targets set out in our service standards;
• Treat any comments and complaints about our services seriously and to handle them in a positive way 

The services we provide

The aims of the Parks section are to:

• Ensure parks, open spaces and play areas in the Vale are safe, clean and well maintained;
• To enhance, protect and conserve the environment for the benefit of this and future generations;
• Encourage greater use of the Council’s parks, open spaces and play areas by improving the quality of the visitor’s experience.
• To develop and manage children’s play areas, ensuring they are regularly and well maintained, safe and secure for people to use
• To undertake long-term planning to ensure the sustainable management of Open Spaces and play areas.

Responding to Customers

Standards for responding to enquiries via letter, email, telephone or personal visit are set out in the Council’s Customer Service Charter.

Operational Standards

Our programme of parks and public area maintenance is as follows:

• Cleanse our parks and play areas between once a day and once a week depending on location.
• Grass cutting (March – October) – Highway areas – cutting range 12 – 14 cuts per annum.
• Grass cutting – Amenity, Sports and Park areas – cutting range 12 – 16 cuts per annum.
• Grass cutting – Ornamental areas – cutting range 30 – 33 cuts per annum.
• Sports pitch marking – Once per week during playing season.
• Annual bedding – Planted in June and October and maintained with a minimum visit of once per week.
• Shrub Beds – Monthly maintenance visit to remove weeds, Litter and clear footpaths. Major winter prune during November – February.
• Hedge Cutting – Twice per year. Once in June/July after nesting birds have fledged and once in autumn before dormancy period.
• Play areas – Will be checked between once a day and once per week depending on location, usage and season.
• Maintain seven closed churchyards that have become our responsibility, cutting the grass up to seven times per annum
• A proactive inspection regime will be implemented for trees in the Council’s ownership

Help Us to Help You!

Customers can help the Council to deliver the best possible service by:

• Being aware of any relevant service standards (for example, turnaround times on applications);
• Keeping us informed of any relevant changes in your circumstances;
• Responding to letters and any requests for further information or documentation in the timescales requested;
• Treating our staff with respect and courtesy.

Customer Behaviour

Our staff are committed to providing the best possible service for customers, and we believe that in return our staff have a right to be treated courteously and with respect.

The Council will not tolerate instances of verbal, written or physical harrassment or abuse of its staff. The Council will record such incidents and may report incidents to the police. We retain the right, where we consider customer actions to be unacceptable, to change, restrict or refuse access to our services.

Comments, Complaints and Suggestions

The Council recognises that communication is a two-way process and operates a procedure that encourages comments, complaints and suggestions to enable service improvement. Whichever method you use to contact us with a complaint, it will be dealt with in the same way.

• A full written reply will be sent within seven working days or, if your complaint is complicated, you will be sent a reply or progress report within 28 days.
• If you are unhappy about our reply to your complaint, you can write to the Chief Executive at the Council using the Freepost address.
• If, after following the Council's procedure you are still not satisfied with the outcome, you can refer it to the Local Government Ombudsman. We can supply you with the contact details on request.