The Parks Alliance
has given a cautious welcome to the Government's announcement that councils
across the country are to benefit from more than £13 million of new funding for
parks and green spaces.
A total of £9.7
million of the money is to be used to cover maintenance costs to essential
playground repairs and the creation of new green spaces, and an additional
£2.75 million for the pocket parks plus programme to support communities to get
more involved in their local parks.
A further £1.2
million has been provided to the National Trust and The National Lottery
Heritage Fund’s Future Parks Accelerator initiative to test new and innovative
approaches to managing and funding parks in the future.
Matthew Bradbury,
chairman of The Parks Alliance, said: “After all the hard work of all those
working for parks, let’s hope it leads to long term commitment to support parks
with the funding they so deserve.”
Meanwhile the work
of the Parks Action Group carries on in devising and implementing Parks policy
in response the 2017 Select Committee Inquiry into Public Parks. TPA is working
closely with key interests in the Parks sector and across government to prepare
a Business Case for Parks that will set out the social, economic and
environmental returns that can be secured for local communities, government and
the private sector from continued investment into our much loved parks and
green spaces.
But the TPA has also
pointed to a previous announcement - the creation of the Government's new
Integrated Communities Action Plan - as potentially more significant than the
funding.
The Action Plan
contains a range of commitments from government to support community
integration including boosting the capacity of local leadership, measures to
support new migrants and local people and improving the places where they can
meet, mix and share experiences. The last point recognises the long held view
that good parks can play a crucial role in building successful and cohesive
communities.
TPA points out that
parks are a key social asset like community centres and libraries that provide
public spaces that people, from all different backgrounds, use creating the
thousands of small interactions that lead to positive bonds of understanding and
mutual respect. In this way Parks play a key role in building social capital-
the glue that holds communities together.
"So there is an
important place for parks in the likely future place based approaches to
tackling the problems of the UK’s left behind communities," added a TPA
spokesman.
" But there is
also an important challenge. In these places someone needs to champion parks.
"There needs to
be a new kind of leadership in the parks sector that can navigate the complex
place based partnerships and present the business case for parks, a case built
on data and evidence that demonstrates the social, economic and environmental
returns that can be achieved by investing in good quality parks and green
spaces to help revitalise communities.
"The Parks
Alliance is working with The Parks Action Group to address these challenges
working across the green space sector and across government."
