Back in May of this year, I wrote a blog about how important it is to use the opportunity of the Covid - 19 lockdowns and social distancing to green our cities (https://timboatswain.wixsite.com/website/post/greening-the-city-and-coronavirus).
The evidence is clear that green spaces in city neighbourhoods are fundamental for the well-being of us all. There is plenty of research that demonstrates how crucial green spaces in an urban environment are for our mental and physical health: in reducing air and noise pollution, as well as combating human stress.
The Coronavirus lockdowns have emphasised the need for urban green spaces and politicians have recognised the importance of providing access to parks during the pandemic crisis and, in some cases, pressure has been exerted on local authorities who attempted to operate shutdowns of parks and green spaces.
However, new research is revealing that though the government and authorities are keen to talk about the benefits of urban green spaces, not unsurprisingly, there is less enthusiasm to spend money to maintain them. It is a familiar story: there is a significant gap between what should be done to ensure the benefits of parks and green spaces and what is actually happening.
If we take the planting of trees as an example, the Government has set as a target that it will plant 11 million trees by 2022 in England and one million of those will be in cities and towns. The evidence, however, suggests that 30-50% of the urban trees may fail in their first year. This is because many are planted in the wrong place, or not watered, or looked after properly.
There is a lot of aspiration about when it comes to greening urban environments. One example that has been given is Southampton where the city council aims “to provide a network of high-quality green spaces contributing to a unique sense of place”. In reality, such a strategy document is unlikely to have any legal force and the cynic in me suggests it will be difficult to hold the politicians to account to make sure it happens.
We know that, because of the pandemic, funding is going to be a major constraint on local authorities. When councils have been put under pressure to find cost savings, sadly, parks’ budgets are often seen as a soft target. An example given in some recent research showed that Newcastle City Council reduced its parks budget by 90% between 2010-17.
Now, surely, is the time when we require a change in previous thinking and make parks and green spaces a priority when it comes to budgetary planning so the noble aspirations being expressed
can be obtained and maintained.
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