Recreation Spaces: Staffordshire

(asked on 23rd February 2021) - View Source

Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps he is taking to increase access to green spaces in (a) Stoke-on-Trent and (b) Staffordshire.


Answered by
Rebecca Pow Portrait
Rebecca Pow
Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
This question was answered on 3rd March 2021

Defra recognises the crucial importance of having good access to green spaces for people's health and well-being. The 25 Year Environment Plan sets out our comprehensive and long-term approach to protecting and enhancing our natural landscapes in England for the next generation, and to helping people improve their health and wellbeing by using green spaces.

The £12.1m Trees for Climate programme will plant over 500 hectares of trees in ten Community Forests between December 2020 and May 2021. When mature, the trees will eventually store over 100,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide, reduce flood risk, increase sustainable UK grown timber, provide more places for nature and biodiversity to thrive, and increase people's access to and enjoyment of woodland. The Forest of Mercia, which covers Staffordshire and the West Midlands, is one of the Community Forests which will carry out the planting.

There are also a wide range of initiatives within Defra which are helping to increase access to green spaces across the whole of England. These include, but are not limited to:

  • Green Recovery Challenge Fund
  • Green Social Prescribing Project
  • Responding to the Glover Review of protected landscapes
  • Nature for Climate Fund
  • Development of environmental land management schemes
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