County’s parks will open overnight to improve staff safety

Lewis Smith, Local Democracy Reporter

Members of a council have agreed plans to leave parks across the county borough open overnight in order to increase access and improve safety for members of staff.

The move was approved at a Neath Port Talbot Cabinet meeting in which council bosses heard how parks across Neath Port Talbot would now remain open to the public 24/7.

This was first discussed in 2024 as part of a bid for the authority to cut costs, improve efficiency, and better manage their resources.

Previous procedures meant that neighbourhood services staff had to open and close parks and gardens in the county borough every morning and evening seven days a week.

The latest report said keeping the parks open would reduce the risk to staff attending the sites at night after they had been exposed to abuse when asking members of the public to leave.

The decision came after a trial period as well as a public consultation which received 280 responses from park users and residents with feedback described as being “generally supportive”.

Feedback from stakeholders also indicated there was “no significant increase in anti-social behaviour or criminal activity” during the trial period held in 2024 and 2025.

While concerns were raised by some residents regarding safety, lighting, and anti-social behaviour others who supported the move highlighted benefits such as increased accessibility to the parks, improved wellbeing, and convenience for dog walking and shift workers.

However despite the positive trend a number of issues were seen at Neath’s Victoria Gardens with the site receiving a disproportionate share of negative impacts during the trial including increased litter, dog fouling, and reports of antisocial behaviour.

The report said: “In fact 56% of all correspondence received during the trial related specifically to Victoria Gardens, reflecting the heightened level of concern among the police and neighbourhood services officers.

“These site-specific challenges, combined with the park’s history of misuse and anti-social behaviour, led to the consensus that Victoria Gardens should not be included in the universal open-access policy.”

The move to leave parks open with the exception of Victoria Gardens was given the go-ahead unanimously by councillors at a cabinet meeting on March 4.

It will now see staff reallocated to playground management with a small saving of around £5,000 per year expected to be seen as a result.

The report lists a total of 12 parks and gardens across the county borough as being a part of the initiative with the exclusion of Victoria Gardens.

These include places like the King George Memorial Park in Pontardawe, Jersey Park in Briton Ferry, Baglan Park in Baglan, as well as Vivian Park and the Talbot Memorial Park in Port Talbot.