Huge victory for common sense
Thank you for setting up the Save Our Parks campaign. Parks play a huge part in our wellbeing. They give us freedom to walk, fill our lungs with fresh air, and provide us with places to run. They fill our world with colour – the greens of grass and trees, and the many hues of flowers and birds.
Walking in parks also helps to combat depression, as well as isolation and loneliness. We must fight to preserve them. Daphne James, Truro Congratulations on your first victory by forcing officials in Westward Ho! to rethink plans to build homes on a park there. Let’s hope it is the first of many triumphs. J. Barnes, West Sussex I live in the country and our villages are constantly being threatened with plans to build more and more homes. There should be a statutory requirement for all councils to ring-fence money for parks and open spaces. These are the lungs of our overcrowded towns. And they should be maintained to a high standard.
A new fund from the Government should also be put in place to save those parks at risk. Gillian Ellen, High Halstow, Kent I am nearly 80 and walk my labrador twice a day in parks near my home. I am incensed that councils all over the country feel they can take our green spaces away from us. Thank you for fighting to keep them open. W. Freedman, Cheltenham Parks are an important part of daily life for millions of people,
whether they are early-morning joggers, evening dog-walkers, amateur footballers or workers just relaxing at lunchtime.
Young and old alike benefit from parks and exciting playgrounds give children their first taste of adventure. They are venues for summer picnics and open-air concerts and, in winter, their hills can be used for sledging.
So let’s all throw our weight behind The Mail on Sunday’s excellent campaign. D. Courtney, Weston-super-Mare I remember that the theme of the 2012 London Olympics was ‘legacy’. Reading now about the decimation of our parks and open spaces, the whole thing seems like a sham.
If we want the nation to be healthy and we want children to get out in the fresh air and exercise more then we must fight for crime-free, litter-free and safe parks everywhere, particularly in our big cities.
If you want legacy, you have to work for it. Mick Ferrie, Mawnan Smith, Cornwall Your campaign to save our parks is a brilliant one. The more outside space people can access the better. But one thing that really needs highlighting is the lack of maintenance to our parks and open spaces: grass not being cut, litter not being picked up, paths and facilities falling into disrepair.
These lead people to give these places a wide berth, and that results in gangs and yobs using the parks and causing anti-social behaviour. Yes, we must save our parks but we also have to maintain them too. Owen Hollifield, Caerphilly I really admire the ‘thin grey line’ of pensioners patrolling a park in Southend, Essex, and stop it being taken over by drug-users and prostitutes.
And it doesn’t take a genius to work out why anti-social behaviour at the park rocketed by more than 60 per cent in just three years – the parks budget was cut by £2.6 million over the same period.
We all know that council budgets are under severe strain at the moment but our parks really need protecting.
If some councils can find the money to pay for fancy new offices or spend thousands on lavish parties then they can certainly give our parks the attention they deserve. B. Adams, Surrey Tunbridge Wells Borough Council wants to build a new civic centre and theatre in Calverley Grounds, a very lovely park in the centre of Tunbridge Wells.
The plan necessitates the cutting down of many trees and the intrusion of a high building in the corner of a park, at a cost of more than £90 million. This comes at a time of council cuts and ignoring the possibilities of improving or altering the present town hall and assembly hall.
There has been a campaign to prevent this happening by Tunbridge Wells Alliance but it has been pushed aside by the council. Irma McDonnell, Tunbridge Wells Councillors need to be reminded that they are our elected representatives working for us, and all council employees are paid to work for us. All of them are charged with safeguarding our country. Terry Lyden, Laleham, Middlesex