Friday, 14 May 2021

Green Spaces are Vital to Our Wellbeing and Now is the Time to Protect them from Development.

 


Green Party activists in Stoke-on-Trent have written to the council calling for parks and green spaces in the city to be protected from development.

 

The letter states that the ‘experience of the past year has taught us the value of our home environment and its impact on our physical and mental wellbeing’ and goes on to say this is that having ‘green space within close walking distance of home is hugely beneficial, particularly for individuals and households who do not have access to a private garden’.

 

Data from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) shows that 12% of UK households have no access to a private or shared garden, in London this rises to 21%. Access to public parks is more evenly distributed with 86% of households having access to one within ‘easy walking distance’ of their home [1].

 

The letter cites research produced by academics from Cardiff University and Cardiff Metropolitan University and published in the journal Landscape & Urban Planning that examines the experience of people living in the UK during the first peak of the pandemic [2].

 

The research shows that access to public or private green spaces is a key protective factor for health and wellbeing. Private gardens and public green spaces such as parks are, the article concludes, areas deserving consideration as an ‘essential health resource in times of crisis’.

 

A spokesperson for North Staffs Green Party said, “we all know how valuable parks and green spaces are to our health and wellbeing”, adding that “what we want is to make sure that those in our city are protected in perpetuity”.

 

The latter calls on the city council to work with the charity Fields in Trust to create a Deed of Protection covering the city’s parks and other green spaces. This would put in place robust protection for these sites whilst they would continue to be managed by the council [3].

 

The letter has been written as a response to the public consultation on the Local Plan being prepared by the council that will inform development in Stoke-on-Trent for the next two decades.

 

The spokesperson for North Staffs Green Party said, “any local plan that does not place adequate value on green spaces will not be fit for purpose”, adding that there is a “need to build communities not just housing and access to nature is integral to doing so”.

 

Research produced by Fields in Trust shows that parks and green spaces in the UK have a ‘wellbeing value’ equivalent to £ 34.2 billion and that being able to easily access green spaces saves the NHS £111 million in reduced GP visits alone [4]. The potential savings to the NHS could be even greater as the service struggles with a backlog caused by the pandemic that could see 10% of patients having to wait more than a year for treatment [5]

 

The North Staffs Green Party spokesperson said, “it is more than clear that protecting our parks and green spaces is vitally important and that is why we are calling on the council to take this opportunity to act”.


[1]https://www.ons.gov.uk/economy/environmentalaccounts/articles/oneineightbritishhouseholdshasnogarden/2020-05-14

[2]https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0169204621000554?via%3Dihub

[3]http://www.fieldsintrust.org/what-is-protection

[4] http://www.fieldsintrust.org/Upload/file/research/Revaluing-Parks-and-Green-Spaces-Summary.pdf

[5] https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-57092797

 

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