Wandle Valley Regional Park Trust: Strategy Development and Fundraising Support, April 2016 to February 2017

Shared Assets was commissioned by Wandle Valley Regional Park Trust in South West London to develop a high level strategic plan for the future of the Trust and, subsequently, to support the Trust in developing a successful proposal to the Heritage Lottery Fund’s Resilient Heritage programme. 

The Wandle Valley Regional Park Trust was established in 2012. It is a non-statutory partnership operating across four London boroughs which aims to coordinate the delivery of a new regional park in the Wandle Valley, South West London. The valley is home to 700,000 people, and the Regional Park area covers 900 hectares, 40 green spaces and 12 nature reserves connected by the River Wandle. 

Working with the Trust and LDA Design, we co-created an outline framework to guide the development of the Trust, balancing the stewardship of the land-based assets, together with opportunities for social enterprise and income generation. The Trust did not own any land itself and therefore there were a range of stakeholders involved including existing community partnerships, a Living Landscape Partnership, four London boroughs, the Greater London Authority and a range of private and corporate landowners.

A bright green scene of the river Wandle with trees and plants overhanging the river.
Image: Wandle River, Wandle Valley Regional Park.

Our work on the project involved reviewing the existing structure and situation, undertaking a needs analysis and context review, developing and finalising a strategy for the park and the Trust. The final report involved a strategic plan to act as a roadmap for how the Regional Park will meet the needs of the community, and the four Boroughs that it covers, for the following 10 years.

As part of this work we also designed and facilitated a workshop with the Living Wandle Partnership, the first urban landscape partnership scheme in the UK which was coming to the end of its funding in March 2017, to ensure its legacy was aligned to, and incorporated within, the strategy of the Wandle Valley Regional Park Trust, and informed the development of a successful HLF Resilient Heritage bid for £94,000. We also separately developed a network map of the partners and stakeholders involved in the Living Wandle Partnership to ensure the relationships developed during the life of the Partnership were documented for future reference.

Shared Assets was able to bring an ability to create and facilitate processes that enabled a diverse range of stakeholders to move quickly to agreed positions and a shared purpose, and to offer a supportive, critical and clear-eyed approach to the development of a complex funding proposal.

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