urban heron in Reading (photo credit: tristrambreistaff)
This week saw the launch of the Green Infrastructure Partnership which hopes to provide a networking framework for those involved in making our towns and cities a pleasant and bearable place to live. Tasked with highlighting best practice for bringing wildlife and nature into our most densely populated areas it is hoped that the benefits will improve the quality of life and health of urban residents.
Launch of the Green Infrastructure Partnership.
Community gardens, rooftop gardens and living walls are all ways in which the Green Infrastructure Partnership hopes to bring wildlife into the towns and maintained in urban environments. By greening up existing ’grey’- developed – infrastructure it is hoped that a dwindling land resource can be put to better use in producing green cities and towns.
Environment Minister Richard Benyon said: “Green spaces are not only important for our health and well-being; they also create places where people want to invest, generating new jobs and businesses.
“We’re used to thinking about drab, grey infrastructure – the roads, drains, power lines and other things on which we all depend. It is now time to place the same level of emphasise on our green infrastructure.
“Today’s Partnership launch will help local neighbourhoods to do just that – be it by planting over a dull grey wall or designing a garden in the sky on an unused roof.
“It will provide communities with the expertise they need to bring the countryside into the city and create places where people want to live and work.”
The main aims of the partnership, which will initially run for two years, are:
- look at the condition of green infrastructure across England and how it meets communities’ needs;
- investigate the scope for improvements, and look at the barriers to green infrastructure in existing areas to meet future challenges such as climate change;
- consider how local communities, planners and decision-makers can best be supported in designing and developing green infrastructure;
- demonstrate the social, economic and environmental benefits that well designed green infrastructure can provide; and
- help people to quantify the costs and benefits of investing in green infrastructure and make the case for new projects.
Green cities and towns improve health and well-being.
There’s lots at stake too. Time and time again studies have shown the value of green spaces and wildlife in an urban environment. Contact with nature can help beat mental health issues, people living in green environments have better physical health and live longer. There’s been studies done in the US that has shown that schoolchildren with views of green space concentrate better and are calmer than those who live and study in areas without green views. Those green school playing fields don’t just help with physical fitness but mental fitness too!
Jo Watkins, President of the Landscape Institute said at the launch of the Partnership’s manifesto :“We want to inspire everyone to make changes in their neighbourhoods by thinking about what’s offered by the natural environment. As our case studies show, natural green open space attracts businesses to invest in an area, adds value to property, provides an educational resource and brings together local communities.
“Harnessing nature and making better use of our limited supply of land can therefore promote sustainable economic development and open up new employment opportunities.”
Urban environment is now a sanctuary for rare species.
If, like me, you were brought up in a city then you already know the value of the urban environment to a great many species. It’s not just the gardens that have become home to many of our most endangered species but waste ground. The transport system that drives the city economy also drives the natural world. Canals, roads, rivers and railways all offer green corridors around and between cities and towns used by a wide range of wild animals. Some of the most valuable wildlife resource we now have can be found on derelict sites in cities or on allotments and gardens.
As we start to finally build for the future and plan to build homes for the current and next generation then we need to ensure these valuable habitats are not lost. It’s important the cities and towns become pleasant places to live in for no other reason than to relieve the pressure on the countryside. The new Partnership will allow city planners, developers and the local community to discuss ways of sustaining and improving wildlife and nature in growing urban environments.
Bob Neill, Minister Communities and Local Government said: “Sustainable development must go hand in hand with protecting and making the best use of our valuable green spaces and rural corridors. The Green Infrastructure Partnership will be a key player in helping to develop the full potential of England’s green infrastructure and demonstrating its social, economic and environmental benefits.”
Balancing development and nature.
Trying to meet the housing needs of a growing population and to meet the aspirations of young families to have a home with a garden as well as protect the wildlife that have made a home on derelict brownfield sites is not going to be easy. The last Labour government set in guidelines that now mean that the UK has some of the smallest homes in Europe and we have some of the most densely inhabited cities in the world.
Brownfield sites are a limited resource and if they are turned over to nature conservation – and I believe that we do need a lot more nature sites in cities and towns to make the urban environment a pleasant place to live – then we need to look at how we grow our cities.
And there lies the tricky question of should we permit green field developments? Personally I’m in favour of the expansion of housing out into green field sites. Good landscaping and reasonable sized gardens would do much to boost many more of our species and brownfield sites that have been colonised by nature offer a green oasis in the city for urban residents.
The simple fact is you can not have protected green-fields and protected brown-fields. You have to make your choice and not try and fool yourself that you can have you cake and eat it!
External sites:
Green Infrastructure Partnership.
