New Cash for Parks
On the 17th February the government announced that Councils across the country are to benefit from more than £13 million of new funding for parks and green spaces.
£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.
TPA Chairman Matthew Bradbury said “After all the hard work of all those working for parks – So pleased to see government finally recognising the parks crisis by pledging extra £13million 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.
ENDS
Notes to Editor
The Parks Alliance (TPA) is the voice of UK parks, representing the people and organisations that create, maintain, invest in and use the public green spaces that we are proud to have at the heart of British life. We campaign at local, regional, UK and EU levels to ensure that parks are properly funded, their roles recognized and developed, and that the benefits that they provide are clearly understood and recognized.
The UK-wide Alliance includes over 400 organisations and senior park industry figures from local government parks services, private contractors, industry bodies, NGOs and volunteer and park friends groups.
The Alliance works to promote the issues and developments to enable parks and open spaces and the people who use them to thrive and to understand and share best practice in the management and care of parks and open spaces within the sector and more widely.
Contact: robert.pearce@theparksalliance.org website: www.theparksalliance.org
