Voluntary groups that help Enfield Council look after the borough’s parks have had their insurance cover withdrawn at short notice, reports Grace Howarth, Local Democracy Reporter

Volunteers from the Friends of Bury Lodge Gardens beside one of the four fenced-off pergolas that have become a health and safety hazard — The Friends of Bury Lodge Gardens are among many voluntary groups affected

Enfield Council is no longer providing insurance cover for friends of parks groups – with the change criticised as an “extra burden” and coming “out of the blue”.

Until recently, the voluntary groups which help the council care for local parks received liability insurance coverage for work in parks and for holding fundraising events.

However, last month, the council informed the groups their cover would run out.

Kevin Croft, the chair of the Friends of Arnos Park, said: “I received an email literally out of the blue without any warning to say that all of our up-and-coming events and activities were no longer covered by insurance and we were advised to individually investigate and secure our own insurance policy.”

Criticising the lack of notice, he said: “I had to put an email out, a text message, to all our volunteers, with immediate effect, saying no more volunteering work in the park until further notice.”

Now the group pays an insurance premium of £190.40 a year, although it’s not the “full cover” the group wanted.

Kevin continued: “We’ve had to go and buy insurance with our own funds. Fortunately we’re prudent so we had some money in the bank to pay for this, but we feel we are paying to volunteer.”

David March, co-chair of Friends of Broomfield Park, said the group was also given “very short notice” of the change and added the lapse coincided with the beginning of the “most active period for park volunteers”.

He said the Broomfield Park group had made “several requests” in the months leading up to the lapse for the cover to be “sorted out” but it was taken away with no replacement.

David said: “The Friends of Broomfield Park are dismayed that our funds have now been diverted into covering volunteer liability insurance – money which was raised and donated to maintain and improve the park and organise community events.”

He estimated around 3,144 hours of volunteer work took place in Broomfield Park in 2024 and around 50 public events, which he calculated, if paid the hourly minimum wage, amounted to £139,000 of volunteer work.

David concluded: “We believe that in return for the extensive work of volunteers caring for our community parks, the council should replace the former liability insurance and cover each of the borough’s volunteer park groups as part of the friends of parks agreement currently in draft.”

Describing the change as an “extra burden” Kevin added the reason the council gave for taking away its financial protection was that it could not provide this type of “blanket cover” anymore.

Kevin queried why individual policies could not be taken out for each park friends group if a “blanket cover” was no longer an option.

“At the moment we’ve lost quite a bit of confidence in Enfield,” he said.

In response, a council spokesperson said: “The council is incredibly grateful for the invaluable work carried out by friends of parks groups. Their dedication and time play a vital role in maintaining and improving our parks and green spaces for everyone to enjoy.

“Due to a change in policy by our current insurance provider, we have been told that the council is no longer able to extend insurance cover to friends groups in the way we have done in the past. We have been advised that each friends group will now need to arrange their own insurance for any activities they organise.

“The change reflects a practice already adopted by many other local authorities and by insurance companies who no longer provide ‘umbrella’ insurance policies. We are confident that “Friends groups will understand the importance of having appropriate cover in place to safeguard both their volunteers and the public.

“We encourage all groups to put suitable insurance in place as soon as possible. Council officers will continue to support all friends groups wherever we can.”

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