Piles of pressure for parks

There’s no doubting the many benefits of green space – from mental and physical wellbeing to climate change mitigation. But CPRE London’s new map, featured in a recent London Assembly Environment Committee report, shows not everyone in the capital has access to these benefits. So we want more new parks for London.

London’s parks and green spaces are vital to the city’s environmental health, public wellbeing and community life. That’s one of the key findings of the London Assembly Environment Committee’s Parks: Under Pressure report, published on Friday.

They play a key role in supporting biodiversity and mitigating the impacts of climate change, particularly through canopy cover, supporting urban cooling and absorbing rainwater to prevent flooding. And also have proven positive impacts on health and wellbeing. In fact, with more than half of Londoners now living in flats, public parks and green spaces are more important than ever as places for people to relax, meet, exercise and enjoy nature.

Green space inequality

However, not everyone in the city has equal access to these spaces. At a webinar last week, CPRE London launched a new map of green space per person, which was evidenced in the Environment Committee report. It shows there are around 750,000 people in the capital living in areas with under 0.44m² of park space per person within 400 metres. And access is far lower in parts of central London than many suburbs, although there are ‘hot spots’ of low access in other areas.

Plus, the report claims that the growing population, and limited private gardens in new developments, means that London’s parks are coming under increasing pressure. And this will only rise as London’s housing targets increase to 88,000 new homes a year. So we must create new green space, as well as provide more funding to maintain existing spaces.

Space for transformation

“We know there are sites across London that could be transformed into accessible green space,” says CPRE London’s Alice Roberts. “There are many roads that don’t need to be roads and could instead become street parks – especially in areas of deprivation. There are also plots of protected land, often bought by developers and fenced off, that could be used to create attractive, accessible green spaces for local people.”

In his 2021 manifesto, the Mayor pledged to improve London’s network of green spaces so that more people live within a 10-minute walk of a green space. And in his London Plan consultation, he pledged to consider how we assess the quality, use and level of demand for green spaces. CPRE London supports this move but wants to see changes in planning policy and more funding to rectify the inequalities and create more parks for London.

See our new map, here

Found out about street parks, here

Read more about our create new parks campaign, here