South London councils are pushing for a change to the law which forces them to pay for the upkeep of the Lea Valley Regional Park.
The Lea Valley Regional Park Act 1966 means London councils must contribute ‘significant’ sums to its upkeep, with the levy for 2017/18 more than £10m.
Introducing a Bill to reform the Act, Kingston and Surbiton MP James Berry described the funding arrangement as ‘not appropriate’ while local authorities were cutting their budgets for parks within their boundaries.
Kingston LBC has been ordered to contribute £160,730 in 2017/18 – more than 10% of its own parks budget of £1.3m.
The levy on Kingston works out as £31.15 per park visitor while Waltham Forest residents, who have the park on their doorstep, only pay 32p per visitor.
Mr Berry said: ‘Although Kingston’s Conservative council has rightly protected our parks budget, 92% of councils have had to cut their parks budget over the last three years.
‘Against this backcloth, it is not appropriate that the Lea Valley Park is funded to such a large extent by taxpayers from every London borough, regardless of how much or how little residents from that borough use the park.’
