There are a number of overarching principles that will guide the way we go about
the future development and management of the Park.
Delivering the Park through partnership
Our vision for the Park can only be developed through the collective efforts of
a wide range of partners. Partnership working is fundamental to the delivery of
our vision for the Park.
We own and manage approximately 1,600ha, about one third of the total Park area,
and we will use our available resources to develop and manage that estate. We know
that to deliver everything we want to do on our estate we will need to work closely
with a range of partners; to seek additional resources and expertise in order to
deliver the features, facilities and activities that contribute to our vision and
aims for the Park.
The remaining 3,200ha of the Park, about two thirds of the total Park area, is owned
and managed by others. The delivery of our Park vision is hugely dependant on other
landowners and managers working together towards a shared aspiration. So a vital
part of our future work will mean working with these other land owners to achieve
our vision for the Park; to work collectively towards Park-wide coordinated and
complementary facilities, attractions and activities, and to assist each other where
appropriate with shared resources, advice and expertise.
Regional Value
There will always be competing demands on the limited resources of the Park: any
particular site might be used for a range of things; priorities need to be identified
for financial and time resources. Deciding what to do, where and when requires a
consistent way of evaluating competing options. We have therefore placed the idea
of Regional Value at the heart of our decision making process.
In simple terms, Regional Value is an assessment of the range of values or benefits
that any particular facility or activity in the Park delivers to the people of Essex,
Hertfordshire and London (the region that funds most of our activities). In other
words, what are the people who are paying for the Park getting for their money?
Assessing Regional Value is not always easy. There is often a wide range of values
delivered by the Park, many of them directly related to people coming and using
Park (e.g. the direct personal and community health value delivered through school
sports programmes at the Lee Valley Athletics Centre) but many are less obvious
or tangible (e.g. the value of athletes who train at the Lee Valley Athletics Centre
winning medals at Olympics).
Importantly, we do not use Regional Value as a hard and fast way of deciding what
to do: we do not try to quantify value or do whatever scores the highest. But the
idea of Regional Value provides us with a tool to help assess and understand the
relative value of competing demands.
Multi function and synergy
There is a huge range of things that people believe the Park could or should provide,
and there are often competing (and at times conflicting) demands for the finite
land, financial and time resources available. Perhaps the greatest challenge for
the future development and management of the Park is how to balance these demands
and create a Park that delivers the most benefits to the most number of people.
Our six aims reflect the range of demands on the Park. We want the Park to be a
combined visitor destination: a place for sport and recreation, a biodiversity resource,
a fantastic landscape, a place for activities and events, and a place for urban
infrastructure.
We believe the Park can be all these things, and we will work to ensure that all
the features and facilities within the Park provide the widest range of values possible,
and importantly, work together as a collective whole to deliver more than the sum
of its parts.
Flexibility
We want to ensure that the features and facilities of the Park, and our approach
to future development and management, remain as flexible as possible. We recognise
that things change: demand for specific facilities and features rises and falls,
existing priorities shift and new development opportunities present themselves.
So we will ensure that as far as possible the features and facilities of the Park
can adapt and evolve to meet those changes as they occur. Our proposals for the
future development and management of the Park will be routinely reviewed and will
evolve over time.
Existing facilities may be developed to accommodate new uses, or may be replaced
by facilities providing entirely new uses; demand for new and currently unforeseen
activities may lead to changes in the use and management of areas of the Park.
Importantly, the framework provides a baseline against which new opportunities and
changing priorities can be assessed. Possible future changes will be evaluated in
the context of Regional Value and synergies with other uses. This will enable us
to assess the relative pros and cons of accommodating new ideas against the agreed
direction for the future development and management of the Park.