As February gives way to March, the days get longer and the weather gets warmer, I’m sure most of us have experienced magical moments of sunshine breaking through the clouds and – at least temporarily – replacing the dull grey with a beautiful, rich, warm light that seems to reach everywhere, flooding into rooms and imploring everyone inside to step out into the fresh spring air. Indeed, I take the view that one of the best things about this time of year is the increasing number of opportunities to spend time outdoors. However, I am among the fortunate, because the area of Sheffield in which I live is well-provided with public green space.
There are a variety of types of green space: parks; recreation grounds and playing fields; village greens; “green belt” land around cities and more. But whatever form it takes, the most important things are that it exists, is managed well and is accessible to the public. The importance of this must not be understated: aside from simply making places more pleasant to live and work in, urban green spaces are instrumental in the maintenance of biodiversity, and in the mitigation of flooding and overheating. There are also health-related benefits: according to the mental health charity Mind, spending time in nature can be beneficial to people living with anxiety, depression and seasonal affective disorder, as well as helping in general to improve people’s mood and
promote physical activity.
Unfortunately, though, access to green space is not a given. Based on data from Fields in Trust, which campaigns for the preservation of green spaces, over 6 million people in Great Britain have no publicly-accessible green space at all within 10 minutes walk of their home. And when
it comes to the green space we do have, it is often not managed in a way that best realises its enormous potential benefits. As charities and local authorities struggle for funding to maintain the parks, squares and greens with which they are entrusted – which can largely be attributed
to political failings on a national level – it is becoming increasingly obvious that, as the saying goes, “money talks”. Public space can be closed off, sometimes for days at a time, for private events; privatised altogether as part of developments that create so-called “pseudopublic” land; or even removed entirely without adequate replacement: Southwark Council in south London has recently come under fire for removing large swathes of communal play areas for children to make room for a housing construction project.
I believe that our green spaces are as vital to the wellbeing of the public as libraries and schools. They deserve to be treated as such, managed by public bodies in a way that seeks not to minimise their costs but to maximise their benefit – to society, not to private property developers or event organisers. That means they need to welcoming and accessible for
everyone in the community, including elderly people, people with disabilities and families with children. They also need to be open at all times people might reasonably want to use them (Sheffield Botanical Gardens, with your ridiculous policy of closing as early as 3:30 pm in the
winter months, I’m looking at you) and maintained and staffed well enough that everyone feels safe doing so. And we need an overall increase in the amount of urban green space, particularly in areas where not enough is currently available.
I have already alluded to the fact that this won’t come cheap, but I think it bears explicitly saying that we should not view these costs as a burden, but rather as worthwhile investment in quality of life, in public health and in the environment. Green space is a critical component of the places
where we live and work, and it is critical that we use it, support it and defend it.
