Prince William put it very well. Parks “quite simply make us happier” he said at last month’s launch of a report by Fields in Trust, the charity of which he is president. The research argued for a new way of valuing green spaces, and suggested the NHS saves £111m a year through “prevented GP visits”, thanks to the mental and physical health benefits of spending time outside.
It would surely be hard to find anyone who doesn’t think parks are a good thing, more than ever in our age of screens and obesity. Ninety per cent of families with children under five are regular users, along with 57% of adults. But popularity has not been enough to protect parks, which are now at “crisis point”, according to countryside groups and campaigners. Cuts are the reason, and this week’s cry for help echoes previous warnings that if action is not taken to stem the flow of resources away from parks, we could face a return to the 1980s, when many were seen as no-go areas.
The Charter for Parks launched today calls for councils to be given a statutory duty to look after parks, in the same way they are required to collect waste and run a library service, and asks the government to recognise people’s “right” to good-quality green spaces. This is not the first time such a demand has been made: in 2016, 220,000 people signed a petition calling for parks to be legally protected. It’s a good idea, and one that the environment secretary Michael Gove should get behind, along with the health secretary Jeremy Hunt, given the importance of green space in protecting biodiversity and air quality.
With the pressure on councils to raise money from development, such an obligation would be a valuable counterweight. Over time, were environmental stewardship a more prominent aspect of local authorities’ work, their culture might be altered. But a state with more responsibilities is not the only answer. There is no reason why a nation of gardeners should spend hours tending their own lupins, and leave all the planting in the local park to paid staff. Park “friends” groups are one of the few areas where austerity may have helped some green shoots to grow. But volunteers can’t do it all, and with urgent alarm calls from Newcastle, Bristol and elsewhere (London is better protected, thanks to central government funding for the royal parks), without support these too are now at risk of withering away.
