Usdaw backs Government action on knives

SHOPWORKERS' union, Usdaw, is backing the Government's new measures to get tough on knife crime.  21 major retailers and the British Retail Consortium have signed up to the campaign, which will limit the availability of knives to under 18s.

Retailers have signed up to a 6 point commitment to:-

· Provide training and support to staff on the sale of knives, and keep a register of completion of training

· Clearly display signs to the public stating that knives are not for sale to under-18s

· Ensure that display and storage of knives minimises the risk of theft

· Ensure till prompts are in place to remind staff at the point of sale

· Enhance safeguards on internet sales to address attempted underage sale of knives

· Monitor attempted underage sales and share information with local police and other partners.

John Hannett, Usdaw General Secretary, welcomed the move:- "Knife crime blights our society and we will do whatever we can to tackle it.  One way to do this is to make it harder for young people to get hold of knives in the first place.  Our members often face abuse from young customers attempting to buy age-restricted goods.  This new campaign will give shopworkers the confidence to refuse to sell knives to anyone without a valid ID, as there will be clear signs stating that this is the case.  Training in the sale of knives will reassure staff that they will be able to cope should a difficult situation arise.

Making knives harder to steal will also avert many dangerous situations where staff find themselves having to confront shoplifters.  We are pleased that so many major retailers have signed up to these improvements and that the Government is continuing to tackle criminal activity that threatens shopworkers and the wider general public."

The £1 park: new report reveals chronic undervaluing of parks

MOST councils value their public parks at just £1 each, according to a report by CABE Space.  This makes them financially invisible and leads to repeated under-investment.  In reality, the value of a single park’s physical assets – excluding land value – can be well over £100 million.

CABE is proposing a new framework for valuation of parks.  This takes into account plants and trees, paths, benches and structures.  Using the new framework, the value of Sefton Park in Liverpool, for example, is calculated at £108 million.  It is valued on the local authority’s accounts at just £1.

Sarah Gaventa, director of CABE Space, said:- "Public parks are chronically undervalued.  You only have to visit a garden centre to know that trees, paving, shrubs and benches are not worthless.  It’s astonishing that most councils value their public parks at only £1 on their lists of assets.  It matters because if you have a building on your stocks valued at £5 million and a park valued at £1, then maintaining the building will appear the better investment.  But if the park is valued at £100 million, it merits an appropriate maintenance budget and investment in the people that manage it."

This anomaly is due to council accounting methods are due to the fact many parks were common land or bequeathed, so were never ‘bought’ and have no original value.  Depreciation is often factored in even though living things become more valuable as they mature.

The new valuation framework is described in CABE Space’s report Making the invisible visible: the real value of park assets.  It proposes that asset value should not be the only consideration when making investment decisions, and identifies park use – the number of visits a park receives – as one indicator of the wider value provided by a green space to communities.  The framework can provide better evidence to support the transfer of assets to communities and negotiate Section106 planning agreements.