£11m initiative aims to ‘secure the future’ of UK’s urban parks

Eight urban areas are joining forces in a ‘pioneering’ £11m programme designed to find sustainable ways to manage and fund parks and open spaces across entire towns and cities.

The initiative has been launched by the National Trust and The National Lottery Heritage Fund, with support from the government, and aims to ‘secure the future’ of the UK’s urban green spaces.

The Future Parks initiative is investing more than £6m of National Lottery and government funding, and £5m worth of advice and support from some of the country’s leading experts in conservation, fundraising, volunteering and green space management from the National Trust.

All winning bids demonstrated four key themes: making green spaces central to everyday community life; giving the public a bigger role in how they are managed; ensuring they contribute more to the public’s mental and physical health; and transforming the way they are funded to secure their futures.

For instance, in Islington and Camden the councils will focus on using parks and green spaces to improve health and wellbeing by developing closer links to the NHS, health providers, doctors and health charities.

The eight places, covering a population of five million people, were chosen in a UK-wide national competition, and selected for their ambitious and creative plans to put green spaces right at the heart of local communities. They are:

• Birmingham;
• Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole;
• Bristol;
• Cambridgeshire (county-wide, covering seven council areas);
• Edinburgh; ­
• Islington and Camden;
• Nottingham; and
• Plymouth

Ros Kerslake, The National Lottery Heritage Fund’s CEO, said: ‘Our urban parks and green spaces are essential to the health and well-being of the nation and yet in some areas they are facing a very insecure future. Future Parks isn’t simply patching-up a few problem parks.

‘It is enabling local authorities and communities to take a longer-term, strategic approach to managing, funding and maintaining them, so future generations will be able to enjoy their many benefits in hundreds of years from now.’

In March, research from the researchers from the University of Sheffield argued that the wellbeing of city residents would be significantly improved if there was more funding into green spaces.