Our vision

Our vision is to provide a united voice dedicated to promoting, advocating and lobbying for the regeneration and sustainable future of quality green spaces throughout the South East.

The Forum's objectives are broad and can be achieved both through the work of the membership and the influence the Forum can impress on other organisations. Four broad areas of work include advice to members, advocacy, reaching out to park users and cross boundary partnership working.

Our objectives

The Forum has broad objectives covering the four main areas of:-

• Advice to members
The Forum should become the conduit for important information and the latest in best practice.  It should be able to give guidance and advice to members on key issues and provide early warnings of new initiatives and funding regimes.

• Advocacy
The Forum, through its working groups and other mechanisms, should be able to gather and channel member’s views on the key issues and represent these to the policy makers.  By speaking with a united voice, the views of the local authority members, associated friends of park groups and others responsible for the management and/or development of the South East’s green spaces will be more clearly heard.

• Reaching Out to Park Users
Pivotal to the Forum’s role is the two-way exchange of information and ideas.  The forum has the opportunity to harness, for the first time the influence of a huge number of park users across the South East including the 1000s of friends of park groups.  The Forum will also communicate directly through media campaigns.
 
• Cross Boundary and Partnership Working
The Forum will aim to facilitate and encourage the exchange of information, sharing of good practice and establishment of partnerships within and across boundaries with the aim of raising the standards of green and open spaces throughout the South East.

The objectives of the Forum are to:-

• Be a representative body for green spaces in the South East;



• Promote and support the regeneration and sustainable management of green spaces in the South East region;



• Raise the quality standard of green spaces in the South East to reflect the needs and aspirations of all residents and visitors;



• Promote and support the roles of the South East green spaces in supporting cross cutting themes such as health and wellbeing, liveability, sustainability, crime and disorder, biodiversity, environment, regeneration, education, young people, culture, quality of life and enjoyment;



• Develop and maintain a network of members for the exchange of expertise, experience and information;



• Identify, promote and disseminate good practice in planning, design, maintenance and management of green spaces in the South East;



• Advocate the case for appropriate capital and revenue funding for parks and green spaces in local authority budgets and national spending reviews;



• Promote higher standards in skills and training for those responsible for planning, maintaining and managing the South East’s green spaces



• Promote community involvement in the continued development of green spaces and contribute to the promotion of community groups nationally;



• Promote a strategic approach to the planning and management of green spaces, including the development of consistent data collection and performance indicators.

The forum's status

GreenSpace South East is an unincorporated association, formed by a consortium of strategic partners.

The Forum is linked to the national organisation GreenSpace, which provides management support and is the employing organisation for the Forum's staff.

GreenSpace is a charity and a company limited by guarantee.