Is it right to monetise our parks when times are hard?
WHEN the Victorian philanthropists gave up their land for the common good of the common man, did they imagine what like those greenspaces would be 175 years later?
Much they would recognise: the fine entrances of imposing iron gates, the ornate railings, the avenues of trees, and rainbow flowerbeds.
How would they feel, however, to see their gifts fenced off from general use and trampled by festival fans?
In Glasgow this summer, Kelvingrove Park has been commandeered by Fiesta x FOLD, an event that began last year in the park’s bandstand but this year spread into the greenspace proper. This meant large hoardings going up to prevent passers-by being able to glimpse performances for free and a national cycle route closed to accommodate it.
Residents at Glasgow Green had TRNSMT music festival, which ran over two weekends before the singer Bruno Mars took up residence. Residents complained of having what is, essentially, their garden removed for a month.
Kelvingrove and Glasgow Green are not the only city parks being hawked for profit. In Victoria Park there is a stooshie over plans from Glasgow City Council’s Land and Environmental Services to grass over 28 of the main flower beds in the formal gardens at the end of the summer. These are Victorian flower beds, part of a landscape listed by Historic Environment Scotland, and the Friends of Victoria Park believe the remaining flower beds will soon also be under threat.
The council suggests the Friends might like to take over the flower beds but it is a large ask from a small
It cannot be right to prevent use of these common plots for the sake of limited numbers
volunteer group and would take paid work from council employees.
Victoria Park recently hosted Friendsfest. Friends of Victoria Park wanted the council to pledge to use any money from Friendsfest to maintain the flowerbeds, however, income generated by the parks is pooled and shared out generally among the council’s Land and Environmental Services.
In Edinburgh, hoardings have gone up around Princes Street Gardens to prevent sight of the Summer Sessions event, to dismay.
The argument runs that an entrepreneurial city should monetise its assets in straightened times, even if that’s using a park as a drive-in movie theatre or music venue.
But parks, the lungs of our cities, are a special case and not to be colonised by private events. Functional and beautiful playgrounds for adults and children, they are gardens for those who live in flats. They cool the air of cities in summer. Parks support current key policy areas – outdoor play in education and a need to encourage exercise to stave off obesity. They are good for mental health.
Most of all, they are “ours”, a collective, shared and, importantly, free amenity, and so the privatisation and commercialisation of open spaces feels jarring. It cannot be right to prevent use of these common plots for the sake of limited numbers.
There is, however, only so much charity to be gleaned from local communities and only so much revenue in council coffers.
If the parks must earn their keep, above all they already give us, then there should be discussions about more creative, less intrusive ways to do it. A good start would be a cap on the number of days a year a park can be out of general commission. They must not become event spaces first and parks second.
Parks are public property, not revenue streams. It’s up to communities to protect their parks. Start by using them: the more people are using them, the less likely we are to lose them.