Spelthorne wants to know which parks, rivers and paths you use, and where they fall short. The survey runs to 11.59pm on Monday 21 September and has a map.

Spelthorne Borough Council has opened a survey asking which parks, rivers, woodlands and walking routes people actually use, and what stops them using them. It closes at 11.59pm on Monday 21 September.

The answers will feed the council’s Green Infrastructure Strategy, a long-term plan for how the borough’s green and blue spaces are protected and added to. The survey opened on Monday 17 August and takes 10 to 12 minutes. Most questions are optional.

What it asks

The council’s consultation page sets out four things it wants from residents:

  • which parks, green spaces, waterways and routes you use and value
  • what gets in the way of enjoying them
  • where new or improved green and blue space should go
  • what should be the strategy’s priorities

There is also an interactive map, so you can mark specific places and routes rather than describe them.

How to respond

Three routes are open, and the deadline is the same for all of them:

  • Online: the Green Infrastructure Strategy survey
  • By email: planning.policy@spelthorne.gov.uk, with “Spelthorne Green Infrastructure Strategy Consultation Response” in the subject line
  • By post: Strategic Planning, Council Offices, Knowle Green, Staines-upon-Thames, TW18 1XB

Timeline showing the Spelthorne parks and rivers survey opening on 17 August, the Staines masterplan consultation closing on 24 August, and the parks survey closing on 21 September

Why the council is asking now

“Green infrastructure” is a planning term, and in Spelthorne it covers a lot. The council’s definition takes in parks, rivers, reservoirs, lakes, woodlands, allotments, nature reserves, playing fields, and walking and cycling routes.

The timing is not accidental. Spelthorne adopted its Local Plan on 17 March 2026, which commits the borough to 3,282 new homes in Staines town centre over fourteen years. The council says it wants these spaces to stay “accessible, connected and resilient” as the population grows.

Cllr John Turner, chair of the Environment and Sustainability Committee, said the borough’s green spaces “are among our most valuable assets” and that “it is essential that we hear from the people who use and value these spaces every day”.

What the borough already has

The council runs open space in every one of its towns. Its parks and open spaces list runs from Laleham Park and the Old Bathing Station on the Thames to Stanwell Moor Rec, Ashford Recreation Ground, Sunbury Park’s Walled Garden and Orchard Meadow, and Bishop Duppas Park in Shepperton.

Some of that management has already changed. The council says 26 of the borough’s parks now have biodiversity zones, where the grass is cut less often to let longer vegetation and wildflowers establish. It gives flood absorption and drought resilience as two of the reasons, alongside insects and wildlife.

One other deadline first

This is the second planning consultation open in the borough this month, and it is not the one closing soonest.

The Staines Masterplan consultation, which sets out where those 3,282 town centre homes are expected to go, closes at 11.59pm on Monday 24 August. We covered it in full when it opened: see Staines masterplan: 3,282 homes.

What it means for you

If you use a particular park or path, name it. The survey is built around specific places, and the interactive map exists so that answers can be tied to a location. A general comment about “more green space” is far weaker evidence than marking the gap you actually walk round.

If something is broken, this is the moment to say so. The survey explicitly asks about barriers and problems. Lighting, dropped kerbs, locked gates, flooded paths and missing links between routes are all in scope, and they are easier to fund when they appear in an adopted strategy.

If you cannot use the online survey, the email and postal routes carry the same weight. Use the subject line the council asked for so your response is logged against this consultation.

It is a strategy, not a scheme. Nothing here funds or builds anything on its own. What it does is set the framework that later planning decisions and bids are judged against, which is why the Local Plan timing matters.

For what is being built and where, see Staines planning news. For days out on the borough’s open spaces, see things to do in Staines.

Sources