MPs highlight threat of public park decline

A report by the Communities and Local Government (CLG) Committee has warned that parks face a period of decline, and encourages councils to publish strategic plans to address the problem.

Recognising reduced council spending for public parks, alongside 97 per cent budget cuts for parks management, the committee is calling on councils to publish strategic plans that will open up parks to support and funding beyond their usual budgets and service areas.

The strategic plans will recognise the value of parks beyond leisure and recreation and set out how they will be managed to maximise their contribution to wider local authority agendas, such as promoting healthy lifestyles, tackling social exclusion and managing flood risk.

The report also addresses the need for the government to remove barriers to innovative funding models and work to improve the unequal distribution of paris, especially in deprived areas.

Importantly, the CLG stressed that public parks should remain under local authority ownership and freely available to everyone, and that public parks should be recognised by the Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs (Defra) in the government’s forthcoming 25-year Environment Plan.

Clive Betts, chair of the committee, said: “Every local authority should have a strategic plan, recognising that parks are much more than just grass and tulips and bringing in resources from outside the traditional budgets. Parks make vital contributions to physical and mental health and bring significant community benefits. They also contribute to biodiversity and climate change mitigation and can assist in local economic growth.

“Parks are treasured public assets, as the overwhelming response to our inquiry demonstrates, but they are at a tipping point, and if we are to prevent a period of decline with potentially severe consequences then action must be taken. The government have a leadership and co-ordination role to play and volunteers do fantastic work in the sector, but the primary responsibility lies with local authorities.

“We will return to this to see what progress has been made before the end of the Parliament. We call on everyone who cares about parks to be our eyes and ears on the ground, particularly those who contributed to our inquiry, and keep up the pressure on national and local government.”

Responding to the report, Matthew Bradbury, chairman of The Parks Alliance, said: “It’s important that the committee has recognised that parks are central to our well-being but it is bitter sweet to read a report which confirms what we have believed for some time that parks are at a tipping point. They are at the heart of British life yet are a cinderella service set against competing financial demands.

“Fundamentally, we believe there is a case for greater leadership to ensure our public parks and open spaces thrive. We would go further than the report and ask that investment is directed by central government to ensure there is strong leadership in the parks sector. If this comparatively small investment is made, it will deliver huge return in terms of improved well-being, social cohesion and environmental management.”