With the Levelling Up fund intended to reduce deprivation and spread opportunities across the UK, much was revealed about how we consider parks able to contribute to addressing these issues. Has the original purpose of public parks been forgotten?
The Origin of Urban Parks
During the 19th century, green planning was developed as a response to the urbanisation created by the industrial revolution, where parks were a spatial solution to the problems of a fast-growing urban industrial environment. From the 1830s, concerns about the conditions of the workers, and the health of cities from poor air quality and overcrowding began to rise. Open spaces for ‘public walks and places of exercise’ were seen as both a preventative measure and a partial solution.[1] This resulted in a greater provision of public green space and municipal parks. London led the way, partially due to its vast swathes of aristocratic hunting grounds and the obtainability of government funding. As did the industrialised north, where places such as Alexandra Park in Manchester and Birkenhead Park (as shown in the picture above) in Wirral were created as a direct policy response to poor living conditions.[2]
The Social Benefits of Parks
These early parks provided strongly perceived mental, moral, and even medical advantages.[1] Today, the impacts on health and wellbeing are apparent. Now parks are used not only for ‘public walks’, but a vast array of physical activities such as running events, cycling, outdoor exercise classes, and team sports. Researchers have calculated that outdoor exercise delivers an estimated £2.2bn of health benefits to adults in England each year. More than eight million people each week engage in at least 30 minutes of “green exercise”.[2]
Research has also evidenced a wide range of wellbeing benefits. Parks offer places for people to spend time with friends and family, allow people tranquil opportunities for stress relief and positive headspace, and are a strong supplier of local pride. One study even demonstrated that “urban parks are sites where different ethnic groups mingle and where informal and cursory interactions can stimulate social cohesion”.[3] Research by Fields in Trust estimated that parks deliver a total combined £34.2bn of health and wellbeing benefits each year.[4]
Parks contribute social value to communities through many further pathways. They can create both employment opportunities through direct roles in park management and maintenance, or a free place to host classes or workshops, while access to green space has also been shown to increase worker productivity. [5] Parks also foster community engagement[6] and have even been shown to reduce crime.[7] Parks can support any number of interests and hobbies in terms of both licensed events and informal activities, meaning that through their adaptability, anyone who is able to access parks can receive some social benefit.
The Deprivation Divide
While parks are highly valued across all communities, often the places most in need of these assets are the places most deprived of them. A recent study showed that the average amount of public green space for people in the most deprived green space neighbourhoods is less than 9m2, or the average size of a garden shed and that children from the most deprived areas are 20% less likely to spend time outside than those in affluent areas.[8] Roughly 1 in 5 people across the UK are deprived of green space, with this figure heavily weighted by race and income.[9] Parks are a powerful tool to increase the social outcomes of a person’s life, and while parks were once promoted to solve such deprivation issues, the current spatial distribution of green spaces is far from ideal.
Where Have Our Parks Gone?
There are several reasons for this. Firstly, it should be said that two world wars in the 19th century caused a significant reduction in both the quality and quantity of parks in the UK.[10] The post-war era then saw another rapid period of urbanisation, which led to greater demands for space for cars, homes, and industry, and a further reduction in open green space. Today cities have limited or expensive brownfield land, and parkland often finds itself under threat of redevelopment, with supply of new greenspace often undesirable for local authorities and developers due to their limited economic yield.
Further, public money for park maintenance is often limited. The IFS highlighted that during the austerity period of the 2010s, ‘spending cuts were significantly larger in more-deprived than more-affluent areas of the country’.[11] The Government’s Levelling Up strategy, intended to address this shortfall, has been accused of inequitable distribution of funding, while the parks fund falls drastically short of what is needed. In the absence of sufficient finances for local authorities, maintenance often falls to community groups, who, however excellent, often struggle to cope with the demands.
The Future
There is clearly a need to urgently improve the greenness of urban areas. Despite greenspaces’ limited economic yield, social return on investment (SROI) analysis provides an accounting for their tremendous social benefits and provides tangible evidence of parks fulfilling their original purpose. This tool can be used by developers and local authorities to understand the real impact that prioritising green space in their schemes and local plans can have in reducing deprivation and improving the lives of the people who live there.
It is encouraging to see that in the absence of government funding, more and more developers are contributing to meeting the need for more green space. U+I’s Mayfield (below, right) represents the first public park in Manchester since Wythenshawe in 1926, whilst Vita’s Symphony Park (below, left) is the first and largest new city park in the city. In Liverpool, Peel has recently announced a new 4.7-acre waterfront park in their Liverpool Waters scheme. Urban greening on a smaller scale can also have benefits, such as including green roofs and walls, tree cover, vegetation, and sports fields in schemes to provide green and recreational facilities in areas that desperately need them.
Conclusion
Public parks are much-prized community assets. They were originally created to relieve the effects of industrialisation and provide those who suffered poor health or overcrowding a place for leisure activities. Now they represent places to exercise, play, promote wellbeing, spend time with friends and family, engage in the community, and create enormous social benefits. However, often the places that need them most are the most lacking, and there is an urgent need to green our urban areas. Whilst the government’s Levelling Up agenda appears to have limited the priority for funding park improvements, through social impact analysis, their benefits are becoming more and more tangible for developers. Perhaps it is time again to realise what our parks are for.
[1] Kemp-paper-in-Garden-History.pdf (katylaytonjones.com)
[2] Featured news – ‘Green exercise’ in England benefits health to the tune of £2.2 billion a year – University of Exeter
[3] (PDF) Social interactions in urban parks: Stimulating social cohesion? (researchgate.net)
[4] RESEARCH: New research shows UK parks and green spaces generate over £34 billion of health and wellbeing benefits (fieldsintrust.org)
[5] How green spaces can influence employees’ productivity and happiness | LabGov
[6] (PDF) How Cities Use Parks for Community Engagement: A Guide for Mayors (researchgate.net)
[7] IJERPH | Free Full-Text | The Impact of Green Space on Violent Crime in Urban Environments: An Evidence Synthesis (mdpi.com)
[8] Access to green space in England | Friends of the Earth
[9] Access to green space in England | Friends of the Earth
[10] Kemp-paper-in-Garden-History.pdf (katylaytonjones.com)
[11] Extra local government funding found to ease cuts has benefited councils serving richer areas more than councils serving poorer areas | Institute for Fiscal Studies (ifs.org.uk)
