Why more funding needs to be provided for urban parks - Yorkshire Post Letters

I agree with the Yorkshire Post’s plea for the government to give more funding to run our 15 National Parks in Britain.

But I would go further with the government providing 'ring fenced' funding for the development and maintenance of Britain's urban parks, which are the 'green lungs' in our towns and cities.

This could reduce the reliance on the NHS as parks are therapeutic in every sense of the word.

Councils up and down the country 'under value' the benefits that green parks give to its residents living in walking distance of a park.

Parks are essential for our wellbeing as the wildlife which they attract, from insects, field mice, birds and foxes help us switch off for a short while of the pressures of modern living.

The harmony of colours from the flowers, seed heads, foliage and bark helps us to relax.

Green Parks, if they are designed with perpetual plantings of trees, shrubs and herbaceous perennials are not expensive to maintain.

Techniques like differential mowing of grass swords save costs and add character to the landscapes with some grasses which are cut short to others left to flower and the flower heads 'dance about' in the wind.

Iniatives like Green flag Awads, organised by the Royal Horticultural Society (RHS) for the best Parks in the U.K., region by region, which are loved by the communities and are maintain to a high standard by paid staff and increasingly unpaid volunteers, add to the quality of life for those who live near them and what's more the Halifax Bank says that living near a park can increase the value of your home.

As a resident of the East Riding of Yorkshire I would like to see the Yorkshire Wolds be reclassified from an are of outstanding natural beauty (AONB) to the 16th National Park in Great Britain.

The undulating areas around Thixendale are in my opinion as good to visit as those in the Yorkshire Dales or the Peak District in South Yorkshire and Derbyshire.