Park volunteers fear cuts to council liaison staff could lead to the decline of a major city beauty spot.

Stoke-on-Trent City Council is planning to axe two park liaison officers in order to save £73,000 a year, as part of its latest budget cuts.

But the Friends of Hanley Park say the officers have done vital work in helping them turn around the once neglected and crime-plagued park's fortunes since 2016, with a record one million visitors seen in 2023.

The Friends group has warned that this progress is 'fragile' and says that cutting the liason staff could see the improvements reversed 'in the blink of an eye'.

They also describe the council's designation of the staffing cut as a 'saving not requiring consultation' as 'tone deaf'.

More than 150 people have now signed a petition calling for the park liaison officers (PLOs) to be retained.

More than 150 people have signed a petition calling for the PLOs to be retained (Nub News).

In the petition, Lynne Ball, campaign lead for the Friends, sets out the potential impacts of the cuts on the Grade II*-listed park.

She says: "Prior to 2016, the park had become tired, derelict and intimidating. Our community remembers that the pavilion and canal bridge were boarded up, and the canalside was often dominated by daytime drinkers gathering in large numbers. During community research, it became clear that many local people, especially women and girls, felt unsafe in the large, central areas of the park. Outside what is now the Community Hub, our volunteers would challenge drug dealing and use in plain sight, on a daily basis, when no-one else would.

"Today, we are lucky to have a park that has come so far – one in which a key visitor frustration is the closure of the pavilion cafe rather than the extent of safety concerns. But we know progress is fragile. Challenges persist but positive change is measurable. This is thanks to the hard work of our PLOs, who work closely with the park's commercial manager and maintenance team.

"The staff presence in the park's Community Hub is central to progress. In December, the queue for Christmas activities taking place there totalled 300, stretching all the way up the canal bridge, and in itself a tidy illustration of change. It isn't unusual for these and other seemingly small PLO-led activities to attract between 50 and 200 children and families, without hitting their pockets in hard times.

"On one level, these are small interventions, but when our community pauses to reflect on Hanley Park's fluctuating fortunes, taken together they are truly vital to sustaining the confidence that families feel in the council's ability to manage this challenging but loved space.

"Such progress and positivity in our city can be reversed in the blink of an eye. A significant minority of visitors do still report concerns about safety, and these figures could easily rise."

Hanley Park had a record one million visitors last year (Nub News).

The Friends group says that volunteers, supported by the PLOs, contributed 15,384 hours to park maintenance in 2023.

According to the council's budget papers, the PLOs' core tasks 'will be be absorbed by the wider parks team to ensure that the friends of group continues to flourish'.

Amjid Wazir, deputy leader of the council and cabinet member for city pride, enforcement and sustainability, insisted that there would still be support for volunteers at Hanley Park.

He said: "I have supported the Friends group for many years – I used to be their vice-chair – and I will continue to do so. But unfortunately we have no choice but to make cuts like this. We've lost around £270 million of funding over the last 12 years. I'd love for us to be able to keep all the park liaison staff if we could. We will still be retaining one liaison officer, so there will still be some support for the volunteers. But sadly this is the situation we're in and it's why we're asking the government for £44 million of additional support."

The city council is consulting on £3.4 million of budget cuts and a 4.99 per cent council tax hike, with a further £4.6 million of savings that do not require consultation. But council leaders have warned that even more drastic cuts will be needed if a request for £44.7 million of 'exceptional financial support' from the government is not granted.

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