Public Places
Contemporary sculpture and horticultural features in a Loughborough park
I
t should be well-known within the green spaces sector that the word paradise - a place of peace, health, prosperity and harmony - is derived from the old Persian, pairi-daêza, for a
park or garden. Clearly, the link between good quality green spaces and human well- being has long been long recognised. The need for thriving communities to have access to attractive open spaces which provide rich experiences seems completely self-evident, in the same way they need good schools, roads or hospitals. It is not easy to understand, therefore,
why public parks and green spaces are so ‘invisible’ and low down the political
priority order for funding and investment. They are rarely, if ever, mentioned in election manifestos, and many council parks departments are now incorporated (and often lost) in ‘neighbourhood’ or ‘cleaner and greener’ services, along with waste management, highways and street cleaning. The result is that they are now so low-
profile and invisible that they have become an easy target for the intended draconian austerity cuts over the next few years. The estimates of future cuts to local council funding make grim reading, with only 42% of intended austerity cuts having already taken place. Parks and green spaces are not a statutory service and have very little
protection, so are likely to get a disproportionate share of the cut-backs, with many parks budgets predicted to be further cut by up to 60% over the course of this parliament In my previous articles I explained how, only fifteen years ago, a House of Commons Select Committee inquiry heard and accepted the overwhelming evidence for the importance of properly-funded parks and green spaces, and a national body for the sector. Despite this recognition, and the accumulation of further supporting evidence since, it seems as though the case needs to be argued all over again. A ‘golden decade’ for the parks sector ended in
PC OCTOBER/NOVEMBER 2015 I 89
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