The Government has been urged to switch the priority of funding from roads to urban green spaces, ahead of next month’s Budget announcement.
The calls coincided with the announcement of a £1M fund to recruit a new generation of ‘green-fingered apprentices’. According to the Commission for Architecture and the Built Environment (CABE) and Natural England, the billions of pounds spent on ‘grey infrastructure’ such as roads needs to be shared more equally with green spaces.
Richard Simmons, CABE chief executive, called for some of the funding that is focused on road-building and widening schemes to be spared for more street trees, parks and green areas.
His comments came at the two organisations’ ParkCity Conference this week, where housing minister, Margaret Beckett, announced the new apprentice fund.
Beckett revealed the 60 ‘green ambassador’ positions would be spread among 47 local authorities, inviting people to apply for the opportunity to follow in the footsteps of [TV gardener] Alan Titchmarsh.
Titchmarsh began as a green apprentice in Ilkley, Yorkshire, before launching his career as a horticulturalist. ‘Green spaces and green infrastructure should not be an added luxury.
‘If we really are to tackle climate change, protect both our environment and our health, green spaces need to be at the heart of our communities,’ she said. Simmons welcomed the scheme, saying there was an urgent need to inspire fresh talent and attract a new generation of green space workers.
‘At a time when investment in grey infrastructure, such as the new road-building and road-improvement programmes, runs into billions, investment in green infrastructure remains tiny.
‘We have to redesign our cities in response to the imperative of climate change, and this means investment in hundreds of thousands of green roofs, more street trees, more parks and new urban greenways.’
According to CABE and Natural England, only £20 per person is currently spent on green spaces across the country. If just one-tenth of the £10bn roads budget was put aside, it could pay for 40 new parks, 500,000 street trees, 1.5Mm2 of green roofs, and 1,000m of safe greenways for cyclists and pedestrians.
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