“Local green spaces were used heavily during the lockdown as many people craved fresh air and exercise. When cafes, pubs and other social spaces were closed, the parks and gardens became the place where public life was experienced.”

A recent short article in the London Garden Trust’s newsletter London Landscapes by Dr Andrew Smith of the University of Westminster discusses how boroughs already struggling to fund their parks now face a triple threat: general shortfalls caused by the costs of the crisis, loss of commercial income and additional costs (eg for rubbish collection) because of intense use.

Faced with inadequate public funding, councils may be forced to ramp up commercial activity in future. Read the whole article:

Dr Smith conducted a survey over the summer about experiences of events in parks during 2019, to which several of our local Friends groups replied. The impacts, both postive and negative are recorded and recommendations for minimising negative impacts are made. The reports are available in two formats: https://zenodo.org/record/3878727#.X6QFbGj7Q2z or