Parks

• Councils face calls to ban 'dangerous' weedkiller

  Councils are facing calls to ban the use of a controversial weedkiller after a landmark legal decision in the US.

  

• Charities to give parks a £1.5m ‘innovation boost’

  Local authorities and other organisations have received a £1.5m ‘innovation boost’ in order to help them find new ways to sustainably run parks.

  

• Councils could save thousands with ‘bee-friendly’ policies

  Local authorities can save thousands of pounds by adopting ‘bee-friendly’ grass cutting plans, campaigners say.

  

• Nearly 2,000 green spaces celebrated in Green Flag Awards

  From traditional parks to burial sites, a record number of green spaces have been awarded a Green Flag this year.

  

• What future for our parks?

  A survey has revealed 85% of councils expect to cut budgets for parks in the next five years. Mark Whitehead finds out what impact this will have on council-owned green spaces.

  

• Councils slash £15m from parks budgets

  Parks and green spaces are falling into ‘disrepair’ because of budget cuts, freedom of information requests reveal.

  

• Council drops plans to sell 10% of its parks

  Knowsley Council has agreed to drop proposals to sell 10% of the borough’s parks.

  

• Parks provide over £34bn of health benefits, report says

  Parks and green spaces across the UK provide people with over £34bn of health and wellbeing benefits, report says.

  

• £1m project to prove economic value of urban green spaces

  A new toolkit to calculate the economic value of urban greenspace is being developed with £1m funding from Innovate UK.

  

• London councils protecting parks ‘despite cuts’, report finds

  London boroughs are working hard to protect parks and green spaces ‘despite funding cuts’, research says.