FIRST PERSON
The patchwork funding of our parks is unsustainable – it’s time for ministers to step in, says Tim Richardson
How wonderful our parks have been during this lockdown period. There is no doubt that – for those in urban areas, particularly – the local park has become a lifeline.
It has been extraordinary to see just how many people have been using them. At times it feels as if one is playing a bit part in some promotional video about the benefits of open spaces, with citizens from all walks of life peaceably coexisting.
But how long will this love affair last? For those of us sceptical about the longterm effects of lockdown, it is clear that once restrictions ease, we shall all go back to our old habits. Perhaps some people will use the local park a little more than they used to, but the problems besetting these (largely) publicly owned and managed spaces will remain.
The problem is – of course – that the money appears to have run out. Central funding has been reduced, but the fact is, parks have simply not been high enough on local authorities’ agendas to escape budget cuts, in many cases, of between 50 and 90 per cent over the past seven years or so (the latter figure was the case in Newcastle, for example).
The response from local authorities has boiled down to attempts to “monetise” these open spaces – as venues for rock concerts, beer festivals or fullblown music festivals across long weekends. In 2015, Brockwell Park in south London was even temporarily turned into a Formula E racing track.
There are now suggestions that independently run charitable trusts ought to be formed to run local parks. The optimistic idea is that trusts should partner with local museums, universities, businesses and even football teams to build a coalition of support. All of Newcastle’s 33 parks have now been transferred to such a model. But what are its priorities?
Urban Green Newcastle lists “exciting events and venues” and “activities, events and performances” as its top two priorities, with “safe and well-maintained parks” coming in third and last.
With no core grant in most cases, or just a temporary initial subsidy in place, several such trusts have already run into difficulties, with some seeking to reverse out of the decision.
Gunnersbury Park, in west London, was transferred to a charitable trust in 2016, when the idea was that venue hire (notably weddings) would be a key source of income. But lockdown has put paid to all that. The park now faces what it calls a “funding gap” of £250,000 this year and has been reduced to begging its users for money, suggesting sponsored walks, runs and online quizzes.
The idea of a patchwork of independent trusts running our parks is a dog’s dinner of a solution that is inherently vulnerable. It is time for government to step in and set up a new department of parks and open spaces, with ring-fenced funding, regionally devolved but overseen centrally. Such an initiative could be aligned with efforts to alleviate climate change and improve air quality, at the same time as enhancing the mental and physical well-being of millions of people. There is a wealth of evidence that parks and open spaces provide all of this, as well as economic benefits to local areas. Such a move requires political advocacy, yet politicians of all stripes have so far failed to step up.
Earlier this month, both the Prime Minister and Michael Gove enthusiastically endorsed the idea of reintroducing wolves and lynxes to the British countryside. Such trendy rewilding ideas are all very well, but perhaps we ought to act instead on the positive role parks have played in the pandemic. For the wolf is indeed at the door of our not-sotreasured public parks system.