THE park most in need of upgrades in this area according to residents is the one that already has an improvement plan.

Bristol City Council has always argued that selling off green spaces is necessary to help invest in scores of other parks across Bristol, after a lack of investment for decades.

During the consultation period residents were asked to fill in questionnaires saying which of their local parks were most important to invest in and which investments in each park they wanted most.

Of the 191 questionnaires returned, the majority thought Victoria Park and Perrets Park were most in need of improvements.

But Victoria Park is already in the third year of a five-year improvement plan that was developed separately from the area green space plan by the parks department and Victoria Park Action Group.

Improvements included in the plan are a permanent cafe, a new BMX track and an upgrade to the multi-use games area.

A comprehensive breakdown of residents' views on the Victoria Park proposals was not provided in the council consultation responses document but residents have still provided comments.

All of the public responses had names removed when the council published them last month.

One said: "Victoria Park – important to retain nature, do not overdevelop".

Another commented: "Victoria Park is great. Thank you for all the investment so far, but we think it still needs more."

In Perrets Park, the most popular ideas were retaining the existing kick-about areas and goalposts, and the existing formal planting.

Introducing a new footpath from the Bayham Road entrance down to the children's playground was considered the least important, although few of the improvements proposed received particularly negative responses.

"I think the current facilities in the park such as the playground and paths need to be improved and brought up to scratch from their dangerous condition before money is spent on extra facilities."

Brixham Road open space was considered the least in need.

Residents provided 167 pages of emails, letters and responses to the proposals for Knowle, Filwood and Windmill Hill.

While two Totterdown sites were saved as a result – Bushy Park YMCA and Higham Street open space – two more are set to be developed. Salcombe Road Recreation ground was not removed from the at-risk list despite 434 people signing a petition against development.

Councillor Gary Hopkins – who represents the ward the ground is in – claimed residents told him they had been "misled" by petitioners over the site. Just over half of the residents who returned surveys on the consultation said they objected to selling part of the site for development. Residents felt the most important improvement needed was "providing a single marked junior football pitch for use by the public and Knowle Park Primary School".

Money raised from sales will be added to funding from developers, grants and the parks department budget and then divided between areas in the city. Residents will be able to have their say on where the money should go at Neighbourhood Partnerships meetings, and over the next six months a "shopping list" of improvements will be drawn up for each area.

Council spokesman James Easey said: "We'll work with a sub-group of the Neighbourhood Partnership and representatives from local parks groups, and it'll be for them to draw up a priority list of improvements and new facilities they'd like to see for parks and green spaces in their area. So that when money becomes available – either through section 106, disposals or grant funding, we'll have a clear idea of which projects to take forward."