start-with-the-park

The need for quality green spaces
11
What can we learn
from past failures?
Five main reasons given by the public for not visiting urban parks:
• Lack of or poor condition of facilities
• Undesirable users
• Concerns about dogs and dog mess
• Safety and security
• Environmental problems such as litter and vandalism.
Improving urban parks, play areas and green spaces (DTLR 2002)
Many of the UK’s 27,000 urban public
parks suffered from a steady decline in
quality during the last decades of the
twentieth century. The public parks
assessment 4 showed that falling local
authority budgets were the principal
culprit, representing an estimated
cumulative under-investment of £1.3
billion between 1979/80 and 1999/2000.
This led to the closure of facilities such as
cafés and toilets, a reduction in policing
and management (much of which used
to be carried out by park keepers) and
the creation of banal, low-maintenance
landscapes. The assessment found that
39 per cent of the stock of local authority
managed open space had declined
in quality. Only 18 per cent of local
authorities reported that their stock
was in good condition.
The Urban Green Spaces Taskforce 5
reported that poor-quality parks and
green spaces had left many communities
with depressing, poorly used,
inaccessible and often dangerous
spaces that could drag a whole
neighbourhood down.
Poor provision of facilities is
one of the five main reasons
the public doesn’t visit parks