Park Wardens to stay patrolling our parks after trial extended

Park Wardens will remain operating throughout the summer, to give our parks additional security through their busiest months of the year.

Wardens have been employed in our parks since 1 April on a three-month-trial, to provide added protection within the parks and open spaces. The wardens operate seven days a week, for fifteen hours a day between 9 AM – 12AM. They wear live Halo cameras and are tracked via GPS to be able to best deploy wardens to areas and potential incidents.

During the initial 3-month-trial, our two teams of wardens have spent 4,368 hours patrolling in our parks and responded to 1,228 enquiries. The largest source of these enquiries came through their own control intel, followed by reports from members of the public to our teams whilst out patrolling.

The decision to extend them until at least the end of September was taken during Tuesday 13 July’s Enforcement and Public Order Committee.

Chair of the Committee Councillor Andrew Baggott said:

“We’ve extended the trial to ensure our parks are patrolled in what tends to be the busiest months of the year for them. It will also allow us to gain further insight into the results of their work, so we can better understand the impact the trial is having.

“Our team of wardens have already formed communication links during the trial with the Community Safety Partnership and Essex Police, and this coordinated approach has helped to deal with incidents of concern such as criminal damage and potential drug related activity.

“They’re active and visible from the morning into the late evening and wear body cameras to capture any unacceptable behaviour in our parks. I strongly encourage residents to report any anti-social behaviour they see in our parks to 60060, as then we will be able to respond and deal with these incidents as quickly as possible”

In addition to the regular patrolling, residents can report any anti-social behaviour on an anonymous reporting line (a text to 60060) or incidents can be reported on Twitter via @AIBReportit. Wardens can then be deployed to incidents as soon as they come in.