Top Quality Green Spaces in Partnership with Southwark

Our roles

The Integrated Parks Grounds Maintenance contract sees idverde deliver parks maintenance, litter picking, all elements of amenity and ornamental horticulture, including summer and winter sports pitch, and cemeteries maintenance, across the London Borough of Southwark.

The contract is divided into four areas, North, South, Central and Cemetery. In order to provide effective customer and client liaison in each area, idverde has mirrored its client structure and provided a supervisor for each area and head gardener for each of the Borough’s five major parks.

Quality and awards

During the four consecutive contract periods, idverde has formed an excellent working relationship with Southwark Council, and has regularly exceeded performance targets for its high standards of maintenance of the Council’s parks, sports grounds and cemeteries. The company has also received several industry awards for its maintenance of sites within Southwark, including the British Association of Landscape Industries’ (BALI) coveted Principal Awards for Southwark Park (2014) and Burgess Park (2013), as well as BALI National Awards for Geraldine Mary Harmsworth Park (2016) and Dulwich Park (2010).

idverde has been delighted to support Southwark in preparing its parks for the annual Keep Britain Tidy Green Flag Awards, which recognise high quality green spaces, and the Borough now boasts 30 Green Flag accredited parks and green spaces. Southwark Council now boasts the second highest number of Green Flag accredited parks of any London authority, and the joint third highest of any local authority in England.

Stakeholder engagement

To further support Southwark Council’s aim of increasing community involvement in its parks, idverde introduced the new post of Corporate Development and Volunteer Manager to the contract. One of the responsibilities of the post is to organise and manage volunteer activities in the Borough’s parks and green spaces, with groups ranging from corporate volunteers keen to ‘give something back’ to the community, to stakeholder groups such as ‘Friends of Parks’. All volunteering activities are fully supervised by our team of volunteer managers, who have received a bespoke Work Based Conservation training programme to improve their knowledge of conservation work and how to effectively and safely plan and deliver conservation activities with volunteer groups.

Environmental sustainability

In order to reduce the negative environmental impact of its operations while delivering grounds maintenance services in Southwark, idverde has invested in a fleet of electric-powered vehicles, with all supervisors’ vans now being electric, and numerous electric vehicles being deployed in the Borough’s parks. These vehicles have the advantage of having zero emissions and being cheap to run, and they are popular with staff and parks users alike.

A further innovation introduced on the contract in recent years has been the use of Weedingtech’s Foamstream system for weed control. Foamstream is a biodegradable foam made from hot water, with natural plant oils and sugars, and is used instead of chemical herbicides, which are not permitted for routine maintenance in Southwark.