Our public parks are under threat, with cuts to their funding being one of the biggest challenges they face. Local authorities are grappling with extraordinary pressures on their finances, and parks all too often are ending up as casualties of difficult decisions, since many town halls do not appreciate the benefits they bring.
The scale of spending reductions varies between local authorities. Newcastle City Council told the House of Commons Communities and Local Government Committee that its parks management budget has been cut by 97 per cent over the past five years, whereas Stockport Metropolitan Borough Council’s budget for green space management and maintenance is down 30 per cent over six years. Council officers and volunteer groups have been doing sterling work to mitigate the full impact of the squeeze, but such support is unlikely to be sustainable in the long-term, leaving parks at a tipping point and facing a period of decline unless further resources are found.
The Communities and Local Government Committee’s parks report highlights examples of the deterioration being seen across the country. These include closure of amenities, such as paddling pools, play equipment and public toilets, and increased prevalence of nuisance plants, such as Japanese knotweed, or vermin, such as rats. Elsewhere, opening hours have been reduced and enforcement capabilities decreased, leading to a rise in antisocial behaviour, litter, vandalism and other crime.
There are an estimated 27,000 parks in the UK and the level of response to our inquiry demonstrated how much they matter to people who visit them. The Committee received nearly 400 submissions of written evidence, more than any other inquiry that we have conducted in this parliament, and a petition signed by more than 322,000. We also had more than 13,000 people respond to a survey we organised, which showed that nearly one in 10 use their local park at least once a week, 60 per cent spend up to two hours there at a time and almost all of them feel parks have a positive impact on their health and wellbeing. People show their support for parks in practical ways, through the work of the numerous friends and volunteer groups, without which many parks would be in an even worse position.
Parks are much more than just grass and tulips. They are rightly valued as places for recreation, leisure and exercise but their true worth is even greater. Parks and green spaces can play a key role in everything from public health to climate change mitigation but if we fail to see their significance and match it with the resources that they need, then the potential consequences are severe.
The Committee concluded that imposing a statutory duty on local authorities to fund and maintain parks is not the answer. The evidence indicated that such a measure would be burdensome, complex and even lead to a fall in standards as councils do the bare minimum required of them.
Instead, we want to see every council work with other bodies and organisations, such as Health and Wellbeing Boards and the Environment Agency, to place parks and green spaces into a much wider strategic context. This will not only go a long way to helping local authorities achieve particular objectives but also open up parks to new sources of funding and support.
Parks can help protect against flooding, for example, if we maximise their ability to absorb and hold rain and run-off water. This option may be much cheaper than constructing or maintaining conventional flood defences. Similarly, they could be used to improve air quality if we plant more woodland to absorb pollutants and release oxygen. Or tackle climate change, with parks able to cool the urban environment by as much as eight degrees Celsius.
A dedicated parks and green spaces strategy could also enable a council to enhance parks’ contribution to local economic growth, physical and mental health and wellbeing, community integration and encouraging active travel, acting as green corridors for people to walk and cycle to and from work. The evidence shows that councils with an up to date, overarching plan for their green spaces are more likely to report their parks being in a good or improving condition. But less than half of town halls have one and are instead taking a hodgepodge approach with no strategic overview.
We also encourage local authorities to take an innovative approach to funding and maintaining parks, while keeping them in public ownership. One suggestion is that groups like parkrun might volunteer time helping to pick up litter in exchange for continued free use of parks.
Parks can make a vital contribution to addressing some of the most significant issues facing our communities but if we fail to recognise their value and give them the priority that they deserve, we risk paying a hefty price.
