Hi ! I am an italian who envies your parks

On the net, I've found out the following:
"Keeping 5,000 acres of urban parkland stocked with trees and other plants is no small task. We have our own nursery to meet the demand and a dedicated team of plantsmen and Parks staff keep the Parks looking great all year round.
Part of our remit is to conserve the Parks for future generations. We have a Green Housekeeping Committee, which looks at how we can reduce the impact we have on the local and wider environment. We also have an Ecology Officer, who advises on habitat management, sustainability, and biodiversity.
The Royal Parks is an executive agency of the Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS)."

Simply "Great" !!!

Our Italian government / Italian cities departements SHOULD DEFENETELY COPY YOU OUT .
(despite the "copy-right" )

 

I post two image-files attachment to better explain what I really mean when I say that I envy the London Parks.
They are two pictures taken from the "Parco Sempione" in Milan.
In both of them, you can notice the bad quality of the grass coverage.
It is a "spotted" coverage.
In some parts of the lawn there is grass.
In other parts, there is not.
Generally speaking, the grass is not well trimmed...
We often say "grass carpet" when reffering to a well trimmed/mowed lawn...
Here, we see a sort of bushy wild grassland...
Can we call it lawn ?
Not to mention some horrible green metallic street lights placed in the middle of the park ! Disgusting !
A lot of "rubbish" over the lawn: dead leaves and other stuff...
That's much far away from the beauty of the London Royal Parks !
Having said that, on my opinion, not everything is to waste.
For istance, the trees of Parco Sempione are good...
Indeed, some park forniture should be defenetely improved.
I mean: taking those horrible green street lights off, replece our poor benches with better ones, replace our ugly green bins with better ones, etc.

 

http://www.royalparks.org.uk/business/

Website for Royal Parks. There should be information in the annual report about costs etc.

 

Thank You Sir !
If I properly work out the content of the annual report (march 2008 - march 2009), I read that the equivalent of 72 staff people working full time has looked after the Royal Parks.
The "total expenditure" for the operating costs is 35,225 pounds.
The staff costs are 4,558 pounds.
I cannot work out both those figures...
Both seem to me a bit "cheap"...
Expecially 4,558 pounds for the staff (probably because the staff do not work in the winter monthes... )
To me, it is interesting look at the figures too because those help me to understand what looking after the Royal parks is all about.

 

I think - and this is just a guess - that these figures are thousand pounds not single pounds. so you can add another 3 noughts (they may even be million but looking at the figures you have given I would guess thousands.