Bromley's Executive decides Wednesday whether idverde keeps the parks to 2035, with park security folded in and the grounds quality target raised to 90%.
Bromley’s Executive is asked on Wednesday to hand idverde another eight years of running the borough’s parks, to 31 March 2035, and to move park security into the same contract (Gateway 3: Parks Management and Grounds Maintenance Contract Extension, report ES20590).
idverde has held the contract since 1 April 2019. The original eight-year term ends on 31 March 2027, with an option to extend built into the deal from the start. The Executive agreed in principle to use it in October 2025. What goes to members on Wednesday is the negotiated version.
Three things in it will be visible to anyone who uses a Bromley park.
Park security moves, and goes round the clock
Park security is currently part of the street environment contract with Veolia, which subcontracts it to Ward Security. From 1 April 2027 the council proposes to take it out of the Veolia contract and put it into idverde’s, so one company is responsible for both the grounds and the safety of them.
The report says the emergency and out of hours service will be extended to cover 365 days a year, 24 hours a day. The specification also formalises safety inspections and records for swing barrier management.
The security work itself keeps its existing functions, including:
- risk-based patrols and site inspections, including gate locking
- emergency and out of hours response to safety incidents
- removing unauthorised encampments and unauthorised events
- first response to found and stray dogs
- dealing with clinical and hazardous waste left in parks
The council’s argument is that patrol staff, grounds teams and park managers will start sharing what they see, so that fly-tipping, vandalism, vehicle incursions and anti-social behaviour get an intelligence-led response rather than three separate ones.
The quality target rises from 75% to 90%
The contract is measured through Key Service Objectives. The report proposes raising the target on the six that cover grass, features and grounds maintenance quality from 75% to 90%, and adjusting the intervention levels that go with them.
It also adds a new Service Failure objective. If an authorised council officer spots something failing the standard outside the formal inspection rounds, idverde has to put it right within an agreed timescale, and there is a financial consequence if it does not. Until now the inspection regime was effectively the only trigger.
Two floral objectives, bedding and hanging baskets, merge into one, because the hanging basket sample was small enough to distort the score. New indicators cover allotment and pavilion inspections.
Event income gets shared
Under the current deal idverde keeps the income from events and concessions in the parks, in exchange for a guaranteed reduction in what the council pays. The new terms keep that reduction, then split anything above it 50:50 between the council and the contractor.
The report notes event income was hit by Covid and that the events industry has recovered, so there is room to grow it with more proactive marketing.
Why not bring it in house
Officers modelled six options: extending with idverde, insourcing with a small specialist supply chain, a council-owned trading company, retendering like for like, a split model with an in-house parks management function, and sharing the service with another borough.
Every alternative came out more expensive. The report says the others would cost 11% to 28% more, and that they would also pull risks back onto the council that are currently carried by the contractor. The parks and green space budget head is £7.254m.
Officers also looked at cutting: reduced service frequencies, thinner maintenance specifications, removing discretionary elements. They compared Bromley with other authorities and concluded the service already runs at a “comparatively efficient cost base”, with a cost per hectare “competitive and in line with other outer London boroughs”. Significant reductions, the report says, would mean “a deterioration in park quality and greater risks to asset condition and public safety”.
The value of the extension itself is not public. It sits in a Part 2 report that members see in private.
What it means for you
- Nothing changes before 1 April 2027. The current arrangements run to then either way.
- From April 2027, one number covers both. If you report a broken gate, a dumped mattress or a group causing trouble in a park, it will be the same contractor dealing with the grounds and the security, and there will be an out of hours response every day of the year.
- Standards are being written up, not down. The pass mark on grounds maintenance quality moves to 90%, and a fault reported outside an inspection now carries a deadline and a penalty.
- Seven council depots are tied to the decision. The leases at Beaverwood Depot and Chislehurst Cemetery Depot in Chislehurst, BEECHE and the offices at High Elms Country Park, Kelsey Park Depot, London Road Cemetery and St Luke’s Cemetery Depot on Magpie Hall Lane all run to 31 March 2035, and terminate automatically if the contract is not extended.
- The decision can be called in. The report records call-in as applicable, which means a scrutiny committee can require the Executive to look again before it takes effect.
The Environment and Community Services scrutiny committee saw the report on 2 September. The Executive meets at 7pm on Wednesday 16 September at the Civic Centre, Churchill Court, 2 Westmoreland Road, BR1 1AS, in public.
Looking for somewhere to go in the meantime? See things to do in Bromley.
Sources
- London Borough of Bromley, Gateway 3: Parks Management and Grounds Maintenance Contract Extension, report ES20590, Executive, 16 September 2026
- London Borough of Bromley, Executive agenda, 16 September 2026
Have your say