A new funding mechanism to protect public green spaces from spending cuts and enable the grass roots network of community groups for parks has been launched at the Chelsea Flower Show.
The Green Places Fund, developed by national parks charity GreenSpace with Birmingham and Nottingham, will help safeguard the future of public green spaces by allowing community groups and philanthropists to give and influence locally.
Paul Bramhill, chief executive officer of GreenSpace, said: ‘If we are all to continue to have easily accessible, quality parks and green spaces, then we must find different ways of funding and maintaining them.
‘All our current research and intelligence shows that the vast majority of public parks and green space are facing significant reductions in funding, in many cases more severe than the cuts to other local government services. Quickly parks can move from being a community asset to a public liability.’
The Green Places Fund concept is supported by Nottingham City Council, Birmingham Open Spaces Forum and Birmingham City Council.
