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Public Parks

I thank my hon. Friend the Member for North Durham (Mr. Jones) for raising an important and serious issue. His grave concerns have led him to raise the subject tonight. Later, I shall come to the specific issues that he raised about his constituency, but first I should like to set the policy context, as that may be helpful. Good quality green spaces enhance quality of life and contribute to wider Government objectives, such as improved health and community cohesion. Their greatest benefit is to deprived neighbourhoods. To support those aims, we are introducing a number of initiatives to raise the profile of green space and enhance its quality. Those initiatives have already helped to halt the decline in the quality of green spaces in many neighbourhoods. Evidence shows that the quality of parks has improved—for example, the number of green flag awards continues to increase, with a 32 per cent. improvement on the previous year. There is clear evidence that people are more satisfied with their local parks and green spaces. The proportion of park managers who thought that their spaces had improved or were stable almost doubled to over 80 per cent. between 2000 and 2005. More action is required, however, to support the poorest performing parks, often in the most deprived areas. Local authorities must continue to build capacity and skills if they are to take a strategic approach to management, especially by engaging effectively with community users of open spaces—a point made by my hon. Friend in relation to children and young people. Local authorities have an opportunity to engage better with constituency Members and the community as a whole. In my own constituency, Danny Crates, the gold medal-winning Paralympian, has assembled a coalition of interests, including the local council and myself as Member of Parliament, to campaign to improve the quality of our local parks and achieve greater usage. We must build on success and learn from good practice to achieve a renaissance of parks and green spaces, which benefit everyone in the community. The Department for Communities and Local Government has developed an urban green space action plan and engaged everyone involved. I am loth to use the word ““stakeholders””, but it is appropriate, as everyone with an interest in the subject should be engaged. We want to build on progress and target areas where we need to do better in response to recommendations from the Public Accounts Committee and the findings that the National Audit Office published in March in a report entitled, ““Enhancing Urban Green Spaces””. Our land use planning system provides strong protection for all open spaces that local communities need, including our valued public parks. As my hon. Friend said, Government policy is set out in planning policy guidance note 17—““Open Space, Sport and Recreation””—affectionately known as PPG17. My hon. Friend said that PPG17 requires local planning authorities to undertake robust assessments of local communities’ existing and future needs for all types of open spaces, including public parks. Existing provision must be audited for quality and quantity. That work will allow local planning authorities to identify deficiencies in provision in their areas and plan to meet them. National policy is quite clear: existing open space, including public parks, should not be built on and lost from recreational use unless an assessment has been undertaken by the local planning authority which clearly shows that it is surplus to requirements. Where an assessment is not up to date, or has yet to be completed, the developer must demonstrate through an independent assessment that that is the case. Ultimately, as my hon. Friend said, that assessment is a matter of judgment for the council. PPG17 recognises that some areas of recreational land are of poor quality and are underused, but those factors are not always an indicator of an absence of local need.