Why Scots no longer enjoy a nice day out at the park
‘Our natural health service’
PUBLIC parks used to be where families enjoyed their weekends together.
But a report shows fewer than half of Scots use their local green space at least once a week – with visits at an all-time low.
While 90 per cent of people said they liked having a recreation area near their home, only 43 per cent admitted using it on a regular basis this year – down from 63 per cent in 2009.
The annual Greenspace Scotland survey also found 40 per cent said they had noticed a decline in the quality of their local park in the past five years, rising to 50 per cent in the most deprived areas.
Greenspace Scotland chief executive Julie Procter blamed Scottish Government cuts on council budgets for the decline in numbers, at their lowest since the survey began in 2004.
She said: ‘Parks are our natural health service. The findings from this survey have important implications for our health and wellbeing. We know green space is good for us, but falling ratings of quality mean fewer Scots are using their green spaces regularly. This has important implications for tackling the obesity timebomb.’
‘Savings on budgets over the last five years have had far-reaching and unintended consequences on the condition of our green space. Even more worrying is how this has reduced our use of parks.
‘These trends closely mirror cuts in local authority budgets: data from the Improvement Service shows annual expenditure by Scottish councils on parks and green space fell from £190million in 2010-11 to £167million in 2014-15.’
Despite the findings, the charity said it was encouraging that only 4 per cent of respond- ents said they never used their local green spaces. Indeed, Glasgow’s Rouken Glen was the UK’s Best Park of 2016.
Keith Geddes, chairman of Central Scotland Green Network Trust, said: ‘Increasing access to high-quality green space has an important role to play in helping to tackle health and wellbeing inequalities.
‘This survey clearly demonstrates there is a continuing need to invest in green spaces; in particular, in Scotland’s most deprived areas.’
A spokesman for council umbrella body COSLA said: ‘We are committed to making local communities as pleasant as possible.
‘We are currently in talks with the Scottish Government regarding the spending review and will be presenting a strong case that local government cannot sustain further cuts without significant impact on services, jobs and the communities we serve to protect.’
The Scottish Government said it had invested £6.3million since 2010 in projects promoting woodland planting.
A spokesman added: ‘Our greenspaces are important for people’s health and for the environment, which is why we are continuing to look to the planning system to protect, enhance and promote green infrastructure.
‘We are also encouraging communities to get involved in the design, management and maintenance of greenspaces.’
The online survey covered 1,000 people aged 16 and over in urban areas of Scotland.