Councils celebrate funding for green spaces

Nottingham City Council and Bristol City Council are among a number of local authorities successful in securing a share of £11 million to safeguard parks and open spaces.

Bristol has been awarded almost £1 million by the National Trust and The National Lottery Heritage Fund to help transform the future of the city’s parks and green spaces, as part of the Future Parks programme. Elsewhere, approximately 25 per cent of land in Nottingham is green space, with the city having 64 Green Flags recognising well-managed parks – the most outside of London.

In the first project of its kind in the UK, Future Parks is designed to help councils find sustainable ways to manage and fund parks and open spaces across entire towns and cities. The £11 million will be broken down into £6 million of lottery and government funding, and a further £5 million worth of advice and support from some of the country’s leading experts in conservation, fund-raising, volunteering and green-space management from the National Trust.

Each of the eight winning bids had to impress the judges in four categories: making green spaces central to everyday community life; giving the public a bigger role in how these spaces are managed; ensuring they contribute more to the public’s mental and physical health; and transforming the way they are funded to secure their futures.

Hilary McGrady, the National Trust’s director general, said: “Today is a landmark moment for the nation’s urban parks. This is not just about new ways to fund and support these much-loved community spaces, but completely re-thinking the role green spaces play in our lives and how we can ensure they thrive for generations to come.

“We need to give parks a reboot and start thinking about them as essential elements of our communities in the same way we think about housing or transport. Future Parks is the beginning of something really exciting. What these eight places achieve will help guide how other councils and communities can really make a difference to securing the future of their parks too.”