The NZRA Parks Specification Working Group is pleased to be able to report on good progress toward delivering the Parks Operations and Maintenance Specification by mid 2017.

The Working Group is now at the stage of seeking industry financial support. The Working Group intend that the final product will be freely available to all client organisations and contractors. Funding is required to cover the costs of the preparation of the specification as well as its on-going annual updating.

The project is grateful for the early financial support from :

Sport NZ
Waikato District Council
Selwyn District Council
Wellington City Council
City Care
Downer
Rotorua Lakes Council
Dunedin City Council
Nelmac
Upper Hutt City Council

In the early stages of the project, a number of organisations indicated support for the project and now is the time to step forward. NZRA will commit to having the organisations who have supported the project permanently recognised at the front of the document for a period of 10 years in recognition of the industry support provided.

The Working Group have established the subscription levels as follows:

Large Council 100,000 + people - $4,000
Medium Council 20,000 to 100,000 people - $3,000
Small Council Under 20,000 people - $2,000
Trusts - $500
Private Gardens - $250
Contractors Large (National) - $4,000
Contractors Medium (National) - $3,000
Contractors Small (up to 10 people) - $1,000
Sole trader (2 people max) - $500

Benefits to Participation

Currently we each develop our own operations and maintenance specification, often taking what we feel is the best of other’s specifications. This project will develop what is considered to be best practice for documenting the work standards for the delivery of operational and maintenance services for parks and green spaces. Contractors as well as clients will be able to use a known and commonly understood specification that is used throughout the country.

• Reduces risk (which costs $) for both contractors and clients as specification is consistently known and understood by all parties

• Saves client organisations having to develop their own specification each time they go to market

• Enables the client organisation to take just relevant aspects of the specification for a specific type contract i.e. tree planting or park sign maintenance

• Provides developed, sensible and measurable quality performance assessment for each specification item, which produces overall scores for contractor performance monitoring

• Takes advantage of the knowledge of contractors to ensure work outcomes are clearly defined, practical and meaningful for the contractors to implement

• Ensures that the NZRA Parks Maintenance and Operations specification is updated annually, or as required, to continue to meet the changing developments in the industry

• Provides a specification which can be added to as new innovations become available in the industry

• Provides a document that internal service providers can use as the basis of service level agreements thus enabling comparison with the costs of external provision

• Provides a knowledgeable working group of contractors and clients to work collaboratively together for the long term betterment of the industry.

Overall Project Description

Output – The project is intended to develop a standard specification for typical parks and green spaces operations and maintenance service delivery. The output will be a specification that is applicable to a range of service delivery models whether outsourced, business units, council controlled organisations or direct in-house delivery. It will be complemented by sensible and measurable quality assessment system that will provide a standard approach ensuring that performance can be measured and also benchmarked across the Country in the long term.

Background - The project intends to embrace the knowledge and experience of established contractors and experienced industry clients from a range of organisations in NZ. The project will address the current issue of “reinventing the wheel” each time an organisation chooses to develop a new service specification/contract and will provide a standard modifiable solution to developing a service specification.

Irrespective of the contract type or style, the specification will provide a library of standard tasks and actions suitable for all service levels that client organisations can select for use in their service specification. Individual organisations will continue to be able to define their specific levels of service and the standard specification will be able to be linked to this to provide a known and accepted standard of maintenance.

Contractors will benefit from assisting with the development of the specification as a standard set of specifications will save time and costs both tendering for contracts and delivering services as the standard specification develops into consistent application and understanding of service standards.

The standard specification will be kept up to date with at least annual reviews to ensure that the specification is enhanced through experience and continues to reflect best practice so that it remains the tool of choice for the long term.

Parks Categories Review Update

The Working Group have identified that the specification should be directly linked to the NZRA Park Categories. These categories were developed in 2011 and are due for a review to assess the success of their application and to identify if any changes are warranted.

We're looking for your help in the review of the NZRA Parks Categories and would appreciate you taking 5 minutes to complete this survey. Please complete by 30 April.