PARKS across Scotland are in a bad way, according to new figures released tomorrow, with four out of every 10 people claiming there has been a decline in the quality of their local green space.
This is in direct correlation with cuts to park budgets, which has seen staff in council park departments cut by up to a third in recent years. When litter goes unchecked, railings and play equipment left to rust, and grass left overgrown, people vote with their feet and don’t use them.
This can't be allowed to go unchecked.
As we report today, local communities suffer when our green spaces are left neglected. Children are trapped in door, obesity and mental health problems soar and people no longer feel safe walking through their local parks. Bluntly, budget cuts to parks are a false economy – research shows that access to green spaces has so many physical and mental health benefits. It can no longer be acceptable to let our parks go to rack and ruin while we pass our children their iPads.
Friends groups across Scotland who are working tirelessly to improve our parks – raising funds, digging flowerbeds, picking up litter and even landscaping and organising events – are to be applauded. This is great work. But do we really want citizens to take on the daily jobs formerly done by the park keeper, while they continue to pay taxes? Community input and ownership should be about adding value, not providing essentials.
Likewise, plans to introduce innovative schemes, such as crowdfunding for new play equipment and encouraging donations in the same way as museums do, are interesting, but insufficient. They should not absolve the responsibility of government – both local and national – to provide us with this important access to local green spaces.
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