"The LGA has long made the case for the importance of green and outdoor spaces for people’s health and wellbeing. This funding is a positive step and will enable more local authorities to create spaces to enable communities to build activity in their daily lives."
Responding to the Government’s announcement in the Spending Review of £9 million of funding to help local authorities create 100 new urban ‘pocket parks’ across the UK, Chair of the LGA’s Culture, Tourism and Sport Board, Councillor Gerald Vernon-Jackson, said:
“The LGA has long made the case for the importance of green and outdoor spaces for people’s health and wellbeing.
The lockdowns during the pandemic emphasised the importance of public parks to the physical and mental wellbeing of their communities and councils have been looking for ways to sustain and increase their provision.
This funding is a positive step and will enable more local authorities to create spaces to enable communities to build activity in their daily lives. However there remains a need to deliver some parks provision at scale rather than on the micro-scale of pocket parks."