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Councils showcase innovative parks schemes in national campaign

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Innovative and ground-breaking schemes which have been set up by councils to transform people’s lives through their local parks – helping them get fit, get work and get involved in the community – are being showcased nationally this week.

A not-for-profit campaign, called Love Parks Week, which is run by the environmental charity Keep Britain Tidy, starts today (Friday 15 July). Councils, who are responsible for most public parks, are at the forefront of this nationwide celebration of parks, which are pivotal to ensuring communities flourish.

Councils are offering pop-up spaces to local businesses; helping people to get employment and skills training by working in parks; running fitness programmes and organising community events with live music and entertainment.

Examples of ways councils are helping communities include:

Park Hack, Hackney

Hackney Council is looking at how they can offer new services, such as pop-up meeting spaces to local businesses, across a range of parks in Hackney. The aim is to increase income to support local services at a time when councils are under increased financial pressure, without reducing the experience or availability of the park to the wider public. Research shows many businesses are willing to pay for services within parks, and recognise being near to public parks makes them more attractive to employees and customers.

Middlesbrough Council

Youngsters are pulling on their trainers for a new ‘Parkrun’ event just for children. The event builds on the success of two existing Parkruns – open to both adults and children. The council has allocated £3,000 from its public health budget to fund the event. Parkrun is a global event, organised by volunteers, which comprises free 2 and 5 kilometre runs.

Bristol City Council is offering training and skills development for people to help people get into permanent jobs. The ParkWork scheme trains people to work in parks, which both improves their skills and helps maintain parks.

Stoke City Council: Healthy Street Games

Stoke-on-Trent City Council has been involved with the StreetGames programme since 2008 and they now deliver around 40 sessions per week in community settings such as parks and greenspace areas. StreetGames is a national scheme which helps bring sport to disadvantaged communities.

Woking Borough Council, Surrey: Party in the Park

Thousands celebrated a galactic birthday bash in honour of H.G. Wells at Woking Park. Party in the Park, organised by Woking Borough Council, hosted three fields full of sci-fi themed festivities for the prolific writer’s 150th birthday. It was estimated 20,000 people turned up to the event.

Cllr Simon Henig, Vice-Chair of the LGA’s Culture, Tourism and Sport Board, said:

“Councils understand how important parks are to residents and the value they have in promoting health and fitness, local heritage, public art, festivals and wildlife walks.

“Local authorities are enormously proud of this country’s green spaces and there are many examples of how parks are used in the community, such as health and fitness, local heritage, public art, festivals and wildlife walks. Councils are taking innovative approaches to using park spaces, such as providing pop-up spaces for local businesses and giving communities a say in how their parks are run.

“Ensuring parks are maintained to the highest standard is paramount. Councils are under considerable financial pressure and are taking flexible and innovative approaches to providing parks services.”

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