Thank you MoS – we must save parks, not let them go to ruin
The Mail on Sunday’s campaign to save our parks is to be applauded.
Perpetual cuts have led to many of our once beautiful parks being neglected or not maintained. Flowerbeds are now full of weeds, or have been concreted over. Gardeners have been laid off and the land sold. This is a warped logic. A beautiful park can lift spirits and not only enhance an area, but provide a haven for wildlife. Parks not only improve the environment, but they are very beneficial to our health and wellbeing. Britain is a beautiful country but our parks are in need of major investment for the benefit of all. They should be better maintained and protected, not left neglected. They are becoming eyesores and not what the Victorians designed them for. Nick Fletcher, Malton, North Yorkshire This excellent and long overdue campaign will reach a very large number of people and hopefully a large number of local authorities.
Access to our parks, gardens and green spaces are essential to everyone in our villages, towns, cities and the suburbs. They are where children hang out, parents push prams, the elderly sit in the sun and everyone can enjoy a picnic. Gilly Drummond, Vice Life President, The Gardens Trust What a great campaign. I thought I was alone in my quest to get something done regarding the downfall of our parks.
Angie Smith, Maidstone, Kent The Mail on Sunday is so right to highlight this alarming lack of concern and deplorable decrease in park resources. Glasgow could once boast more parks than any other city in Europe. Not now.
John Cusack, via email I salute The Mail on Sunday on its major campaign to halt the decline of our parks. It was shocking and sad to read how thousands of our spaces are falling by the wayside into disrepair or being sold off by cash-strapped councils. Our lovely, picturesque green spaces and parks since Victorian times have had a special place in the hearts of millions of people and given visitors many happy memories. All of us should throw our weight behind The Mail on Sunday’s vital campaign and do everything possible to Save Our Parks. David Courtney, Weston-Super-Mare The Mail on Sunday has raised a very important issue. What is happening now should be viewed as a national scandal, especially as an apparent remedy seems to be available to local authorities. What has happened to the proceeds from the Community Infrastructure Levy, a planning charge introduced by the Planning Act 2008 to provide local authorities with an additional source of taxation income which could only be used to finance infrastructure projects? John Harding, Budleigh Salterton, Devon The politicians keep urging people to get off their backsides and use the parks to keep healthy and fit to ease the burden of the NHS treating people for obesity and other related conditions, yet they take from us the means to avoid these ailments. Keith Martin, via email I am astonished that as a nation we now struggle to maintain our public parks. I grew up in the 1950s and 1960s when we took parks and playgrounds for granted, along with public libraries, free milk and an effective healthcare system. Our population has increased by 20 per
cent since then but where has the money gone? Do we have too many ‘wealth sappers’ rather than ‘wealth creators’, shuffling money around rather than creating it, dreaming up laws, rules and regulations or new ways of becoming ‘offended’ and seeking redress? Skint? I despair!
Steve Milner, Guildford What on earth is happening to our country when we have to give up our parks and playing fields? When they are sold off, they will be lost for ever. M. Annable, Alfreton, Derbyshire I know the park under threat in Sidcup that you featured last week as my daughter lives there, and I believe the developers have a cheek by wanting to build on it. It has been a park for years. Why are these councils so money-strapped? Where are our monthly council tax payments going and when is the Government going to put a stop to it? Once our green and pleasant land has gone, it is gone and we will never get it back. It seems nobody is listening to protests. It all comes down to money and how much developers can make and how much councils and the people selling the land can get out of it, regardless of how those living there feel about it.
S. Kemp, New Ash Green, Kent Thousands of parks are falling into disrepair or being sold off by cash-strapped councils. This coincides with news that the average life expectancy is set to fall in the UK, along with reports that 62 per cent of the population are now classed as overweight and that obesity is estimated to cost the NHS about £5 billion a year. Is there a correlation here?
Angus Long, Newcastle Of course we must save our parks. It is disgusting to even think about building on our green spaces.
Christine Sillitoe, via email Reading about all those parks under threat really saddened me. I cannot believe that council chiefs and politicians can waste millions each year on silly projects but leave misery for the many. Let’s pray and hope someone speaks out for more parks to improve family lives. Paul Cobley, Hall Green, Birmingham Parks were created to improve health and bring local communities together. Today’s society has a greater need for health and wellbeing, both of which can be improved by green spaces. Rangers provide essential education to children and young people by helping them to improve the environment and change perceptions for the future. Society is changing for the worse and stress levels are increasing. Open spaces provide an escape from the mayhem. Olivia Faulkand, Newton-Le-Willows, Merseyside Thank you for launching the Save Our Parks campaign, which addresses a crisis for many communities around the UK. We Love Stoke Lodge, a community group representing 900 local residents in Stoke Bishop, Bristol, is fighting to maintain open public access to a vital and historic green lung at the heart of our community. Helen Powell and Emma Burgess, via email Thank you for starting your campaign to save Britain’s parks because our green and pleasant land has never been so threatened. Croydon’s Labour Council are failing on many fronts, one of which is the removal of the protected status of a very large number of local parks. One of these parks sits next to my road. Higher Drive Recreation Ground in Purley is a wide open space which includes a well-appointed children’s playground, a dilapidated football enclosure, and a tennis court in an even worse state. However, the park is enjoyed by locals, especially dog walkers, which includes my wife and myself, and several of my neighbours. Brian Watson, Purley, Surrey Thank you to the Mail on Sunday for highlighting this severe problem of open spaces. We have lived opposite Rosehill recreation park for many years, during which time we have seen several football pitches, several rugby pitches, a baseball pitch and two cricket pitches disappear. Now Sutton Council wants to build a new secondary school on an artificial sports pitch at one end of the park. The pitch was built at great expense but has since been left to fall into disrepair. Mr & Mrs A. Taylor, Sutton, Surrey A new park opened in our area in June and we have set up a committee to help preserve it for the future. I think parks around the country should look into following this lead.
P. Carden, Winsford, Cheshire