Commenting on the Heritage Lottery Fund State of UK Parks 2014 report, Mark Camley, Chairman of The Parks Alliance, the newly formed voice of UK parks, which brings together for the first time people and organisations that create, maintain, invest in and use the public green spaces, said:

‘This timely report provides the evidence to back up the experience of park staff and volunteers on the ground that the parks we know, love and use are close to crisis point. The Parks Alliance is keen to work with the Government now to halt the potentially disastrous decline in the green spaces, that are at the heart of British life and culture.

‘Together with the people that create, maintain and use parks, national and local Government has a duty to protect and improve the country’s public green spaces for future generations.’

‘We support the report and will actively help in delivering the report’s call to action, including the need to improve the collection and monitoring of data on UK parks as is done in other countries. We will be asking HLF to release the base data of this report to begin the process of establishing an ongoing and public measure of the state of UK parks.