By Neil Merrick
Local authorities should spend more money on making England’s towns and cities greener, government advisers said this week.
Highlighting what it sees as an imbalance between ‘green’ and ‘grey’ infrastructure in urban areas, the Commission for Architecture and the Built Environment called on councils to divert funds towards open spaces, parks and roadside trees.
Research by Cabe suggests that the equivalent of just £20 a year per resident is spent on green spaces while billions of pounds go on road improvement schemes.
Richard Simmons, Cabe’s chief executive, said it was time to redesign cities in response to climate change. ‘A switch in public spending from grey to green infrastructure would trigger an environmental revolution,’ he added.
Simmons was speaking ahead of this week’s ParkCity conference, held in London to promote the natural environment in town planning.
Helen Phillips, chief executive of Natural England, a separate advisory body, said greening towns and cities would create jobs, improve people’s health and protect wildlife.
Speaking at the conference on March 24, housing minister Margaret Beckett announced a £1m fund to train more horticulturalists through local authority apprenticeships.
The apprentices would be ‘green ambassadors’ and take responsibility for parks and open spaces.
‘Green infrastructure should not be a luxury,’ she said. ‘Green spaces need to be at the heart of our communities.’
