Show your love for your local Land Trust park - Love Parks Week 2017

Have you ever thought about the impact that your local park has had on your life? Whether it’s the park bench you go to escape at lunchtime or the safe open space your kids love to play, your local green space is more than just a patch of land, it’s something to be celebrated.

To celebrate Love Parks Week, we’ll be sharing how important our sites are to local communities so join us on Facebook and Twitter and help us raise awareness of the many ways that green space can benefit everyone.

With ever increasing demands on local authorities, the Land Trust are working with national and local decision makers to promote the principle of placemaking, raising awareness of the benefits of a collaborative approach to integrated planning and the value of green spaces.

Placemaking is a collaborative approach to planning, designing and managing public spaces, in order to create places where people want to live, work, play, invest, be healthy and be happy. Well-designed places can:

• promote healthy, sustainable lifestyles
• reduce pressures and costs on public services
• attract additional investment and create opportunities for local people and businesses
• create a sense of belonging, identity and encourage community cohesion, reducing crime and anti-social behaviour
• ensure the environment is resilient to changing climates and able to work effectively to maintain air, soil and water quality to support biodiversity.

Placemaking is at the heart of our approach to green space at the Land Trust.  As an independent charity, we provide cost effective solutions for the sustainable, secure long term management of public open space and green infrastructure, benefitting the local area by boosting the economy, promoting healthy lifestyles, protecting and enhancing the environment, offering educational opportunities and encouraging community cohesion.  We do this through identifying sustainable funding solutions, creating long-term relationships and actively managing the land to encourage positive community engagement.  We manage our sites to create great places for nature and the local community to thrive side by side and we are proud that a number of our sites are an important resource for biodiversity and nature conservation and for health and education opportunities.  With more than 60 country parks, nature reserves and woodlands across the country, national land management charity the Land Trust is responsible for many of the places you know and love.  Many of our spaces have artworks, walking trails, wildlife meadows, volunteering groups – excellent opportunities for relaxing and for the more active to enjoy the outdoors.  Importantly, these green spaces provide endless opportunities and are valuable to the local community.

If you’re looking to get out and about to your local Land Trust site and find out about the wide variety of activities available to help you make the most of your local park and green space, go to https://thelandtrust.org.uk/visit-our-spaces/.    Also, if you’d like to find out how you can support our work through donations, fundraising, volunteering or corporate support, you can find out more at  https://thelandtrust.org.uk/help-us/ or contact us on 01925 852005 or enquiries@thelandtrust.org.uk.