For the past 20 years I have been professionally involved in the study of urban parks and have published several books on the subject. I was involved in the Heritage Lottery Fund discussions which led to the setting up of the Urban Parks Panel and was privileged to be a member of that panel for the three years of its existence.

  Today every town has a range of public parks, gardens and recreation grounds. Some of them are modern, but the great majority of them are between 50 and 150 years old and some of them are very much older. These parks offered a range of facilities for all members of society and they played a most important role in people's lives. They were created and successfully maintained by local authorities and indeed were a source of great civic pride. However in the last 20 years the decline of our urban parks has become widespread. There are a number of reasons for this decline, but chief among them is the lack of funding for park maintenance by local authorities. (See Public Prospects, Garden History Society and Victorian Society, 1993).

1. SOCIAL BENEFITS

  1.1 Urban parks are used by some 8 million people per day. (Comedia/Demos) A MORI survey in 1992 on recreation, found that while 46 per cent had used a local authority leisure centre or swimming pool within the last 12 months, nearly double that number (70 per cent) had used parks, playgrounds and open spaces, and half had used them more than 10 times in the period surveyed. ("Environmental and Recreational Indicators," MORI Report for Audit Commission, 1992)

  1.2 Evidence of the popularity of parks can be seen whenever a park is threatened by development. In Manchester, the first of the great industrial centres to create parks, there were more adverse comments on the proposed leisure developments in the city's parks under the draft Unitary Development Plan, than on any other subject.

  1.3 Many of our urban parks are located in areas of great social need, with the highest density of population. The local park is often the only available and accessible open green space.

  1.4 Many if not most of these parks are of local historic merit. The restoration of local historic parks and the creation of new small parks, gardens and recreation grounds could provide an amenity hitherto lacking and improve the quality of life for residents of these areas.

  1.5 Parks in the past were part of the local community. The local people raised subscriptions to pay for sculptures and they supported park events in great numbers. Local parks need to become part of their local community again. They can become so again as the new Mughal Garden in Lister Park, Bradford illustrates.

  1.6 Parks are of both formal and informal educational value: a resource which is still hardly recognised. Different people value historic landscapes in different ways and parks can be one of the ways in which this can be understood. (Using Historic Parks and Gardens: a Teacher's Guide, English Heritage, 1998; Park Discovery Project: Teacher's Pack, London Historic Parks and Gardens Trust, 1998).

  1.7 They have aesthetic value. Parks offer open space, grass and trees and a quiet contrast with their urban surroundings. In the past they offered skilful and vivid floral displays, a skill that carried on well into this century and which attracted park visitors. Some recent research acknowledges that park users today place a high value on scenery and natural features, but there is no research on people's enjoyment of flowers, or how looking at bright flowers cheers people up.

  1.8 They have a spiritual value. The green surroundings, the care and attention devoted to a well maintained park and the peace that can be found there are immeasurable qualities that are not easy to define. The significance of parks cannot be measured solely in terms of visitor numbers.

  1.9 Research indicates that gardening is an increasingly popular activity in which 48 per cent of the population participate. Local parks could build on this enthusiasm. (Annual Abstract of Statistics, No. 134, Stationery Office, 1998).

  1.10 They have recreational value. Parks are part of the environment of our everyday lives. The experience of park users will depend on the type of park. Historic parks have an added significance for they can help people to understand and value the past and their own role today and in the future. Historic parks involve understanding the continuity of history and linking the past with the present. They are thus a central part of sustainable development.

  1.11 Playgrounds are an important feature of urban parks and one of the major uses of parks still, is going there with children or grandchildren. Feeding the ducks is still something that children love to do.

  1.12 The pressure today is on our historic parks to accommodate more and more sports. Yet only 6 per cent of park users come for organised sport, whereas sport takes up 25 per cent of the space and 50 per cent of the budget. (Landscape Institute, Urban Parks Discussion Paper, 1992, page 8). For the majority of park users sports are not high on their agenda. What most people like about parks is the freedom to do what they want, to be alone, or in company as they choose, away from the pressures of the city and to enjoy the space, the flowers, the greenery and the wildlife.

  1.13 Towards the end of the 19th Century many parks added palmhouses to their attractions. Many of these are now in a decayed state awaiting restoration and seeking new uses. (e.g., Tollcross Park, Glasgow and Sefton Park, Liverpool) The main problems affecting the palmhouses today are maintenance costs and vandalism. An extremely successful use of a palmhouse is Tropical World created in the old palmhouses of Roundhay Park, Leeds. This attracts some 1 million visitors annually.

2. ECONOMIC BENEFITS

  2.1 Historic landscapes, including town and country parks, have often been viewed in terms of restoration and funding problems. Instead they need to be seen as regeneration opportunities.

  2.2 Conservation has been viewed as backward looking. History is about today and tomorrow and conservation is about connecting the past to the present and future.

  2.3 While the rarest or most valued landscapes are of specialist interest it is often the local and non-designated sites which make the greatest contribution to local distinctiveness and to the sense of place in a particular locality. The Urban Parks Programme of the Heritage Lottery Fund has made a most valuable contribution to this recognition, by pioneering a bottom-up approach, i.e., defining historic parks in terms of local significance. Hitherto restoration has operated on a top-down approach which concentrated on the outstanding parks of national importance. An important part of this process is encouraging the involvement of local non-expert people in decision-making and it therefore links with Local Agenda 21 and sustainability.

  2.4 High-quality parks and gardens are a prime requirement for livability in cities and fundamental to good town planning. (cf City Beautiful, Garden City and Patrick Geddes) Quality environments include historic urban parks.

  2.5 Increasingly towns and cities are aware of the need to compete for investors, business, tourists and residents. High quality, well-maintained urban parks have an important role to play in this, both in terms of restored sites of heritage merit and new parks and townscapes.

  2.6 The creation of new parks in Paris and in Barcelona illustrate the contribution that they can make to successful urban regeneration. (In Paris the creation of Parc Bercy added 15 per cent to property prices, while the creation of Parc Citroen added 18 per cent.)

  2.7 The value of property facing parks and green open space is higher than that of other properties. A range of green open spaces, parks and playgrounds is essential to successful urban regeneration.

  2.8 Urban regeneration is not just about property prices. Landscape and townscape character assessment which includes historic character are in the long term of greater significance. It is individual distinctiveness that gives of each site its sense of place.

  2.9 Gardens form an increasingly popular tourist attraction.Over a 10-year period 1986-96 visits to gardens increased from 105 visits in 1986 (Index 1985 = 100) to 163 in 1996. This compares with museums visits in 1986 at 98.2, rising to 113.8 in 1996. Thus garden visits saw a 55 per cent increase in this period, compared with a 15.8 per cent increase in museum visits. (Annual Abstract of Statistics, No. 134 Stationery Office, 1998).

  2.10 The creation of new urban parks of contemporary design should be an integral part of urban regeneration schemes.

3. ENVIRONMENTAL IMPORTANCE

  3.1 Parks are one of the keys to sustainable development and to Local Agenda 21. Both newly created and restored parks could be the focus for investment in the surrounding urban areas. This in turn could help to reverse urban decay, would go some way towards meeting projected housing development and would help to protect the countryside.

  3.2 Successful park management is part of managing the environment as a whole, instead of focusing on high value areas.

  3.3 Public parks are part of the grain of the landscape and townscape and an integral part of the setting of buildings.

  3.4 All forms of green space contribute to the urban context. Historic urban parks have an "added value" for they are an important part of the historic urban context, whether it be a Victorian townscape, or a twentieth century one.

  3.5 Parks have an important role to play in transport policies. Research shows that the majority of urban park users live nearby and walk to their local park (Comedia/Demos). If urban parks are well maintained they will become more attractive places to visit. People might then be less inclined to use their car in order to find an attractive green space. Townspeople visit country parks by car, but country people tend not to visit urban parks.

  3.6 Parks clean the air and provide lungs for the city. Trees filter the dust from the air and lower the temperature in cities. One hectare of urban park, with trees, shrubs and grass can remove 600 kg of carbon dioxide from the air and deliver 600 kg of oxygen in a 12 hour period (Landscape Design, February 1994).

  3.7 Urban parks have a role to play in mental health and research is being undertaken on the role of nature on psychological states. Hospital patients who could look out on trees and nature recovered quicker that those whose views were restricted to other buildings. The Victorians were well aware of the calming effects of nature and recent research is beginning to substantiate this (Comedia/Demos, Park Life: Urban Parks and Social Renewal, 1995, page 70).

  3.8 Town and country parks are traditionally seen as separate issues, but in terms of the environment and sustainability they are part of one broad issue, that of accessible green space. In the past certain centres, such as Birmingham had a policy of creating parks linking the city centre to the countryside. Such a policy could also include the Community Forests and Greenways as part of a long-term strategy.

4. THE CONDITION OF PARKS

  4.1 Safety in parks was in the past secured by the presence of park keepers and superintendents and the swearing in of park police. By 1996 only ¹/₃ of parks had dedicated park staff, yet 90 per cent of local authorities experienced vandalism (Association of Direct Labour Organisations Survey, 1996).

  4.2 If people are to use parks for any length of time it is important to offer refreshments, drinking water and toilets. Many parks had a range of buildings, such as pagodas, shelters, refreshments rooms and bandstands. As a result of the decline in investment in parks during the 1980s, by 1994 less than 10 per cent of our parks had cafes, refreshments or kiosks and about 25 per cent of our parks still had toilets (Audit Commission, The Quality Exchange Survey of Parks and Open Spaces managed by the London Boroughs, Metropolitan and District Councils of England and Wales, London, 1994).

  4.3 The lack of dedicated park staff, the closure of nurseries and the dispersal of specialised collections of plants means that today the opportunities for training in horticulture are greatly diminished and what planting there is tends to be more uniform, because plants are bought in from garden centres.

  4.4 All the evidence suggests that our historic urban parks are as relevant today as they were when they were designed originally. If numbers of visitors to some parks have declined drastically, it is not solely because of alternative leisure opportunities. A vandalised park with no attractions, few flowers and no refreshments available is not high on anyone's list.

  4.5 It was the recognition of the general and pervasive decline of urban parks that led to the development of the Urban Parks Programme by the Heritage Lottery Fund in 1996.

5. FUNDING AND MAINTENANCE

  5.1 The Urban Parks Programme of the Heritage Lottery Fund has over the past three years helped to change the climate of opinion among local authorities about the significance and potential of their urban and country parks. But the problem of park maintenance remains.

  5.2 While the Heritage Lottery Fund can fund the restoration of historic designed landscapes they cannot aid the creation of new parks. Any proposed new development should include some form of publicly accessible well maintained open space.

  5.3 Although the Heritage Lottery Fund has dedicated some £120 million to the restoration of some 220 urban parks, this represents a very small proportion of parks in need of investment.

  5.4 The maintenance of Local Authority leisure and cultural facilities comes from the Rate Support Grant from central Government. Urban and country parks are not included in the Standard Spending Assessment formula and local authorities have no statutory duty to maintain them. In practice Local Authority expenditure on parks and open spaces varies very widely. The problem of park maintenance needs to be addressed urgently.

  5.5 The type of maintenance needs to relate to the type of park and its design. The maintenance of historic parks needs a proper understanding of the historic significance of the site.

  5.6 Stock-taking

  We do not know the size of the problem, since we do not know how many town and country parks there are in the UK. Nor do we know how many of them are historic parks. The figure of 5,000 historic urban parks across the country as a whole has been mentioned, but there needs to be proper research in order to identify the size of the problem. Simple listing will not be sufficient. It would be important to be able to differentiate between various types of open space and to identify parks of historic merit. An inventory of the historic parks, gardens, squares, cemeteries and churchyards of London revealed some 1,700 sites. An audit is vital to establish what urban parks we have, when they were created and what condition they are in.

  5.7 Understanding the resource

  Designed landscapes are part of the historic environment and their heritage value needs to be established in order to establish their significance locally, regionally and nationally.

  5.8 The New Opportunities Fund will support initiatives in health, education and the environment. Both town and country parks have a potentially important role to play in all three areas. In addition the Fund may make it possible to fund the creation of new landscapes.

  5.9 Urban and country parks need a national agency to champion their cause. Other areas of local authority responsibility such as museums, libraries and sports have individual Government-funded agencies to protect them and be responsible for them. Urban and country parks have no equivalent agency responsible for them or to fight for them, or able to give a national overview.

CONCLUSION

  The present decline of urban and country parks is a matter of urgency that deserves Government scrutiny. These parks are used daily by millions of people; they are an integral part of the townscape and enhance the attractiveness of towns as places to live and work in; they have a role to play in health and education; they improve the environment and promote biodiversity; they have a role to play in urban regeneration and in counteracting urban depopulation. Restored and well maintained urban parks will benefit all sections in society, add value to the local environment, aid the creation of sustainable communities, create quality environments in deprived neighbourhoods, and enhance the sense of place, local and national identity and civic pride.

Hazel Conway

Chair: Conservation Committee, Garden History Society

Parks and Gardens Advisor, Victorian Society

Advisor, Open Spaces Society

April 1999