Greenspaces Strategy 2025 to 2035

This Greenspaces Strategy was developed for Reigate & Banstead Borough Council (RBBC) to guide the future of its parks and open spaces over the next ten years. The work was initially led by leisure management consultants KKP (Knight Kavanagh and Page), and subsequently enhanced, refined and finalised by a cross-council officer working group. The process was also supported and overseen by a panel of elected members drawn from the Overview & Scrutiny Committee, ensuring strong political input and accountability.

The strategy has been shaped through a comprehensive programme of engagement, including a community survey, a series of consultation sessions with local stakeholders, and an extensive review of council policy and information. This included alignment with the Corporate Plan (2025–2030) and the Environmental Sustainability Strategy (2024) to ensure that the vision, aims and objectives are consistent with the Council’s wider priorities.

Its scope focuses on the parks and green spaces managed and maintained by RBBC. The term greenspaces refers collectively to parks, public gardens, cemeteries, playing fields, children’s play areas, woodlands, nature reserves, allotments, linear open spaces and other forms of publicly accessible green land. This definition excludes spaces that are primarily built development, agricultural land and private residential gardens.

Purpose

The decision to produce a Greenspaces Strategy stems from the growing recognition of the pivotal role that parks and open spaces play in enhancing quality of life for our residents, contributing to and enhancing environmental sustainability, and supporting our wider corporate objectives; including those set out in the Corporate Plan (2025-2030).

The Strategy establishes the principles and objectives guiding our activities related to Greenspaces services. It will serve as a comprehensive framework to inform and direct the ongoing work of our Greenspaces team. Our team is responsible for a range of services including arboriculture management, countryside management, grounds maintenance for parks and open spaces, cemeteries and play area provision. The Strategy will underpin future action and operational decisions, ensuring that its work is aligned with and reflects our other ambitions and required outcomes. It is also a key mechanism for delivering a number of objectives set out in our Environmental Sustainability Strategy (2024) and supporting the Local Plan objectives.

There are several statutory duties which apply to the work carried out by the Greenspaces service, relating to maintaining and supporting biodiversity within the borough. It is also important to provide spaces people to use for recreation to support their health and wellbeing, which has the potential to, on occasion, create a conflict with the need to support biodiversity. This strategy aims to balance these two conflicting demands, ensuring that biodiversity can thrive and increase.

The synergies between this strategy and our other core strategic documents reflect the co- benefits and shared ambitions between greenspaces and wider environmental and social matters including ecology and habitat, nature recovery, health and wellbeing, water management and climate change.

Key challenges

In common with every local authority, we face a variety of significant challenges. Having high quality and accessible greenspaces can, to some extent, help address these. The challenges and opportunities include:

Improving health and wellbeing

• Several key health issues have been identified which affect the borough’s residents. These include the fact that 63.5% of adult population is overweight or obese (OHID, 2023/24) and 17.8% of reception age children are identified as having excess weight (OHID, academic year 2021/22 – 2023/24)
• An increase in sedentary lifestyles is reducing the overall health of the public.
• The reported proportion of mental health disorders in the area is the third highest among young people in Surrey.
• Providing good quality greenspaces where people can visit, socialise and undertake physical activity can help address these challenges.

Increasing biodiversity

• Recent national legislation including the Environment Act 2021 and changes to section 40 of the National Environment and Rural Communities Act (NERC) 2006 extends the biodiversity duty on public authorities to include the enhancement of biodiversity alongside conservation by way of creating “the general biodiversity objective”.
• We have already identified a local need to maximise ecological habitats and opportunities. The emerging Surrey Local Nature Recovery Strategy will also reflect this priority. These include adding trees, hedgerows and wildflower meadows to existing greenspaces. This also has important crossover with helping to achieve carbon reduction targets via the offsetting benefits that greenspaces provide.
• Enhancing biodiversity supports and improves local wildlife whilst vegetation also absorbs carbon and other pollutants, helping to achieve carbon reduction targets.

Climate change mitigation and adaptation

• Ensuring our parks and greenspaces are helping to adapt and develop resilience to the predicted future climate and extreme weather events.
• For example, using nature-based solutions (e.g. restoring woodlands, hedgerows and wetlands) to help mitigate the future costs of climate adaptation, and exploring funding for future greenspaces maintenance and improvement activities.
• Opportunities for urban greening, such as tree planting or green roofs which can provide shade and cooling.

Net zero target

• In line with national and local targets, aiming to achieve net zero emissions as set out in our Environmental Sustainability Strategy (2024).

Current and future financial pressures

• In financial year 2024-25, the net cost of maintaining parks and greenspaces was £1.4 million.
• We maintain a large amount and variety of green spaces which places significant pressure on council budgets.
• A decline in the natural environment has potential negative impacts on the local economy (for example., income generated by recreational visits, air pollution, and so on).
• Reflecting this, and to ensure efficiency, there are opportunities we can explore, such as maximising the scale of, and optimising, available grants and collaboration with third sector partners.

Population growth

• Over the next 10 years, the borough’s population is expected to grow by 7.3% (ONS), particularly amongst older age groups.
• Growth will increase usage of, and place additional pressure on, our green spaces

Housing growth

• While much of the population growth may be in older age groups, planning policies often require new play areas within new housing developments.
• It is important that we continue to seek developer contributions (Section 106 and Community Infrastructure Levy) and other funding sources to fund such provision and future maintenance, thus improving the financial pressures being faced.
  • Section 106 - is a legal agreement in the UK between a local authority and a developer or landowner to mitigate the impact of a new development on the local area which requires developers to contribute to infrastructure upgrades to make the development acceptable in planning terms.
  • Community Infrastructure Levy - this is a charge which local authorities in England and Wales place on qualifying new developments to raise funds for local infrastructure and facilities, such as schools, roads, health services, and parks, that support and mitigate the impact of the development.

Our greenspaces

Reigate & Banstead borough sits either side of the M25 motorway in Surrey. The four main population centres are Reigate, Horley, Redhill and Banstead Village. Parts of the borough are located within the Surrey Hills National Landscape (formerly known as an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB).

As a council, we own approximately 3,200 acres (1,300 hectares) of rich and diverse greenspace comprising a variety of countryside, including large areas of open space such as Reigate Heath, and the Redhill, Earlswood and Banstead Commons; along with some very rare and important habitats.

The map below highlights the greenspaces which are managed by Reigate & Banstead Borough Council.

We work with many partners across the borough to support the management of our land. Whilst the principles of this strategy apply across all the greenspace land that we own, the implementation plans, and their relative priority, sit with the organisation which manages the land.

Map

The map below highlights the greenspaces which are managed by Reigate & Banstead Borough Council.

© Bluesky International Ltd. / Getmapping PLC © Crown copyright and database right. All rights reserved (AC0000816807) 2025

Banstead Commons Conservators

As a result of the Metropolitan Commons (Banstead) Supplemental Act of 1893, the Banstead Commons are managed by the Banstead Commons Conservators (BCC). The BCC exists to “protect and enhance Banstead Commons, ensuring the continuation of free and legal access for all”. The Act conferred upon the Conservators a statutory duty to ensure safe and free access for the public to the commons and to protect the commons from damage and trespass.

The BCC manages four separate areas of Council owned land, covering 1,350 acres (550 hectares): Banstead Heath, Banstead Downs, Park Downs and Burgh Heath – all in the north of the borough.

Land designations

Large parts of our greenspaces hold national and local designations. Many hold more than one designation, recognising the unique role and importance of such land. Some of the most recognised designations found across our greenspaces include:

• Sites of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) - A national formal conservation designation for an area of particular interest to science due to rare fauna or flora species and/or geological or physiological features
• Ancient woodland - Area of woodland that has persisted since 1600 in England
• Local Nature Reserve (LNR) - Places with wildlife or geological features that are of special interest locally
• Site of Nature Conservation Interest (SNCI) - Sites identified at a local level for their conservation value (non- statutory)

Diagram

This diagram identifies the total areas of various key land designations within the borough, part of which are owned and managed by alternative landowners. Their relationship between the land designations is indicated by the overlapping portions which show where land has multiple designations. The "RBBC Greenspace" circle represents the 740 hectares of the borough that are managed and maintained by the council's Greenspaces team – this circle overlaps all the key designations to some degree. It also illustrates how a proportion of the RBBC-managed greenspace is not subject to any of these designations.