A short report by the Gardens Trust highlights the impact of 40% budget cuts on the condition of parks.
The Uncertain Prospects: public parks in the new age of austerity report highlights the achievements of the last two decades but also how much has been undone in the last few years. It specifically calls the effect of the austerity cuts introduced in 2010 as ‘the beginning of the end for that renaissance’.
The report includes these recommendations:
- maintenance of public parks to be a statutory duty for local authorities
- identification of baseline funding requirements for all parks
- enabling local authorities to introduce local taxation to fund parks
- recognition that for the vast majority of public parks, there is no alternative to local authority ownership and management.
