The House of Commons Communities and Local Government (CLG) Committee report on public parks warns that parks are at a tipping point and face a period of decline with potentially severe consequences unless their vital contribution to areas such as public health, community integration and climate change mitigation is recognised.
The Committee call on councils to publish strategic plans, which recognise the value of parks beyond leisure and recreation to open up parks to support and funding beyond their usual budgets and service areas.
Many of those who contributed to the inquiry raised the potential conflict between green spaces and housing development: Public parks are included within the definition of ‘open space’ in the National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF). The NPPF provides that existing open spaces should not be built on, unless assessment clearly shows them to be surplus to requirements or the loss resulting from the proposed development would be replaced by equivalent or better provision elsewhere.
The Committee’s response agrees that green space should be at the heart of planning as it is fundamentally important to creating and shaping communities where people want to live, and where they are able to thrive. The Committee considers that when preparing or updating their Local Plans, local authorities should take a whole-place approach which recognises the importance of parks and green spaces both to existing and to new communities, in accordance with paragraphs 73 and 76 of the NPPF.
The Committee also recommends that ‘sufficient priority must be given to the sustainability of ongoing maintenance and the revenue funding needed… local authorities should be allowed to use Section 106 and Community Infrastructure Levy funds to cover parks’ revenue requirements’.