£13m announced for green spaces

The Ministry of Housing, Communities & Local Government has announced £13 million funding for green spaces.

£9.7 million will be allocated to local authorities to better maintain, protect and increase their recreational spaces, with an additional £2.75 million made available for the Pocket Parks Plus programme which aims to transforming neglected and derelict spaces.

A further £1.2 million has been provided to the National Trust and The National Lottery Heritage Fund’s Future Parks Accelerator initiative. The partnership supports local authorities to test new approaches to managing and funding parks.

Communities Secretary, Rt Hon James Brokenshire MP said: "Our parks and green spaces are huge assets to our towns and cities, offering precious spaces for all of us to get together, to exercise and to play.

"This latest funding will support bold proposals to help renovate and restore existing parks and create new vibrant, safe green spaces for our communities."

Action already taken to encourage more people to make better use of parks includes extending the Green Flag Award licence by a further five years in September 2017, which means the people behind Britain’s best parks and green spaces will continue to be recognised and awarded for their tireless dedication

The government will continue to work with the Parks Action Group, which represents leaders from across the parks sector to help ensure that current and future generations can continue to access safe, high quality and local parks.