Protecting Liverpool’s Green Spaces for Good.

Green Space charity Fields in Trust is inviting Liverpool residents to get involved to help them protect all the parks and green spaces across the city. Liverpool City Council have committed to protect 100 parks, totalling over 1,000 hectares, which can never be built on or lost to development. Once completed, Liverpool will be the first city in the UK where every resident has a legally protected green space within a ten-minute walk of home.

The Council’s commitment ensures the positive benefits of green spaces will always be available for the city’s residents. But this is a joint effort, the Liverpool Park Friends Forum were instrumental in bringing about green space protection, working with Liverpool city council and Fields in Trust. Now Fields in Trust are inviting local businesses and the wider community to support the programme.

Over the last two years we have all relied on our local green spaces more than ever; parks are a vital part of the local environment helping us rebalance and recover. Alongside their value for health and wellbeing, urban parks increasingly have a role to play in environmental improvements including air quality and biodiversity.

Fields in Trust Chief Executive Helen Griffiths said: “We have seen a major shift in the way people talk about, visit and value their local parks. Our parks have provided a lifeline throughout lockdown and now, coming out of the pandemic, we can all play our part to make sure local green spaces will remain a healthy part of the local environment contributing to our wellbeing, our community connections and mitigating the impact of climate change. We are working with the city council to ensure all Liverpool parks will be protected and available for the whole community, for future generations. As a charity we need support from the communities and businesses in Liverpool to help turn this vision into a reality.”

Councillor Dan Barrington, Liverpool City Council Cabinet Member for Climate Change and Environment said: “We are delighted to work with Fields in Trust to protect the city’s parks and green spaces. This is a practical example of Liverpool City Council’s strategic Triple Lock: People, Planet, Equality. I encourage local community organisations and businesses to step-up and get involved with Fields in Trust, supporting them to protect more green spaces for good”

A series of posters will be going up around Liverpool parks in the forthcoming weeks inviting park users to sign-up for regular updates on the progress of the programme and help bring about a fundamental change by future-proofing Liverpool’s much-loved parks – securing green spaces for good. Find out more at the Fields in Trust website: https://www.fieldsintrust.org/liverpool

Photograph: The attached photograph shows, L-R, Chrisie Byrne, Chair Liverpool Park Friends Forum; Helen Ball, Friends of Norris Green Park; Helen Griffiths Chief Executive, Fields in Trust, Cllr Dan Barrington LCC cabinet member for Climate Change and Environment; Caroline Williams, Friends of Hartshill and Calderstones Park; Kenneth Aspinall Friends of Sefton Meadows.
Fields in Trust champions and supports the UK’s parks and green spaces by protecting them for people to enjoy in perpetuity. Because once lost, they are lost forever. Fields in Trust is an independent charity with almost 100 years’ experience protecting parks and green spaces. They work with landowners, community groups and policymakers to champion the value of our parks and green spaces to achieve better protection for their future at both the local and national level.
In a pioneering partnership Fields in Trust is working with Liverpool City Council to protect 100 of the city’s parks and green spaces (totalling over 1,000 hectares) ensuring everyone in Liverpool will live within a ten-minute walk of a park or green space that can never be built on or lost to development. http://www.fieldsintrust.org/liverpool
The Green Space Index is Fields in Trust’s annual barometer of publicly accessible park and green space provision. Through the Green Space Index, Fields in Trust are taking stock of the nation’s quantity of local parks and green spaces and providing analysis on its impact. This is based on benchmark guidelines set out in Fields in Trust’s Guidance for Outdoor Sport and Play publication. fieldsintrust.org/green-space-index
More information is available from the Fields in Trust website fieldsintrust.org