Almost £60m has been cut from council park budgets since 2010, research by trade union Unison has found.
The highest cuts to parks and open spaces budgets came in the North West (£12.8m), North East (£9m) and West Midlands (£8.2m).
Unison’s head of local government, Heather Wakefield, said: ‘Local parks and open spaces provide fantastic value for money, particularly for mums and dads who need to keep their children occupied during the long school holiday break.
‘Parks give everyone a place to relax, play, exercise and learn, and they provide opportunities for permanent jobs, apprenticeships and training.
‘The Tory obsession with slashing huge swathes of council grants risks turning our cherished parks into negative spaces of fear and anti-social activity.
‘The Government must wake up to the fact that local councils need adequate funding to maintain equipment and employ enough staff to keep park activities running.’
