Campaign begins to improve West Country parks
Your Park Bristol & Bath are fundraising to make every green space more inclusive
Last updated 12th May 2024
A campaign group is looking to get every park across Bristol and Bath made more inclusive for everyone.
Your Park Bristol & Bath (YPBB) are holding an event at Hartcliffe Millennium Green this morning (9th May) to formally launch a fundraising campaign, at which the group will say the majority of the nearly 600 parks and green spaces across the region are not inclusively designed.
They are looking to raise £30,000 over the next two months to be spent on improvements, as part of a year long project called 'Reimagining Parks'.
Charlee Bennett, chief executive of YPBB, says: “Parks are nature-rich, free to use, community assets that are good for everyone’s mental and physical health, but they have historically been designed through a very narrow lens.
"That means there are literally hundreds of thousands of people in our two cities – and millions beyond – who feel unable to make the most of their local green spaces.
“The statistics are horrifying for people who don’t have sufficient access to nature – for example, people growing up with little green space around them are 55 per cent more likely to develop psychiatric disorders in later life, at greater risk of things like depression, anxiety, and obesity, to name just a few things.
“It’s actually not difficult to make parks more accessible – it involves simple measures like making information available better, creating wheelchair-friendly access, having accessible toilets, clear sight lines for safety, introducing inclusive activities such as sensory walks and wellbeing activities.
"Unfortunately, many of these measures are not possible within the shrinking budgets that local authorities, who are responsible for the basic maintenance of parks, have available to them."
YPBB say everyone should have an accessible park within a 10 minute walk of where they live, work or study, with targets for the next year including the creation of one "exemplar park" in both Bristol and Bath that is fully accessible for all disabilities and differences.
“Our Reimagining Parks campaign is not just changing landscapes, it’s fostering inclusivity, safety and wellbeing," Charlee said.
"This is a huge campaign for a small charity like ours to take on, but through our work with local communities over the last five years, we are absolutely clear on what needs to be done and we are determined to start delivering the changes now.”
All donations made to the campaign over the next two months will be matched by Aviva.
You can find out more about the campaign via this link.