As a parish council, we have made the decision to negotiate with developers to take over the maintenance of the public open spaces within the new developments within Sandymoor as long as we are provided with an appropriate dowry that, when invested, will cover those costs without any extra charges required by the residents of the area.
We made this decision as a council to protect the maintenance money available as well as ensure that the standard of maintenance remains within our control rather than taking the risk of the money being given to a 3rd party company that may not be around in a few years.
While the parish council do not own all the public open spaces in Sandymoor, we are in discussions with the developers that are currently working in the area to provide the appropriate sums of money for us to take ownership of those parcels of green spaces.
Here is a map of the public open spaces that we currently own and maintain within the parish of Sandymoor.
The dowry money is invested within a CCLA investment fund, from which we receive a quarterly dividend to pay for the maintenance of the land we own. Any funds received from this that are not spent on the maintenance will be reinvested into the fund to help grow it to protect against inflation so we can 'future-proof' the dowry and be able to maintain the land in perpetuity without having to raise the annual precept to cover the costs.
