Parks

(asked on 22nd March 2021) - View Source

Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:

To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, how many joint meetings the cross-departmental working group and park sector group have had; and what the outcomes of those meetings were.


Answered by
Luke Hall Portrait
Luke Hall
Minister of State (Education)
This question was answered on 25th March 2021

The Parks Action Group has met four times since its inception in 2017. These meetings led to the development of a workplan that focused on: funding; quality standards; a shared vision for the futures of parks (including establishing a robust picture of their benefits); empowering local communities involvement and improving equitable access.

MHCLG provided £500,000 to support sector-led initiatives including:

  • Appointment of the Parks Action Group Coordinator.
  • Joint research delivered by APSE and academics ‘21stCentury Parks’ which aims to identify the knowledge and skills of existing park managers.
  • New Policy Institute research exploring parks funding, new funding models and to identify good practice:
  • Public Health England and Natural England research on accessibility of green spaces:
  • The Natural England Green Infrastructure project to improve benchmarking on standards for green spaces:
  • Locality and National Federation of Parks and Green Spaces Empowerment Programme
  • Skills: Using the 21stCentury Parks research mentioned above, the Skills Task & Finish group are developing a competency framework to form a greenprint for the parks profession.
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