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This week's guests are James Cairncross and Angela Lewis from the Midlands Parks Forum which has its annual conference on the 17th of October at the National Memorial Arboretum in Staffordshire. Highlights include keynote speaker Dr. William Bird, a GP who contributed to a select committee report on access to green space who will speak on health benefits of physical activity and green spaces.

"Other speakers include people from MHCLG, the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government, Heritage Lottery Fund, and also some experience from out in the real world, such as Islington Borough Council" Angela explains and she outlines workshops also to be run at the event.

James addresses the "perennial problem" of parks budget cuts. "Despite there being quite a clear return on any investment in parks, local authority officers are still struggling to protect what they've got, let alone improve the funding for green spaces.

"Our chair of trustees Liz Stuffins attended the previous Government's DEFRA inquiry into urban parks, and they found that both the quality and the quantity of urban parks are in quite serious decline.

This exacerbates the skills shortages suffered by the parks sector but The Midlands Park Forum aims to help overcome this by offering learning events, the conference and webinars "focused on the skills and competencies in a framework that aligns with the Landscape Institute's framework on competencies identifying over 60 skills in six categories, which we've identified as being important for a good park manager. And it's not just about cutting grass. This is people skills, environmental stewardship, income and finance, future visioning and planning, and all the competencies that go with being a professional."

The lack and loss of expertise in the sector combined with budget cuts means some parks "are already losing their green flag awards because the authorities can just no longer attain the quality that's needed to keep those award...some councils now can't even afford the cost of the application, let alone the quality".

With a new Government installed, James acknowledges parks will have to "join the queue" when asking for more state funding but top of his list of asks is "a national urban parks strategy and it needs to be integrated into public health because the benefits of that are both obvious." Close behind is a wish that the Green Jobs Task Force be expanded to include the green spaces sector.

They discuss best practice in the sector and for Angela it means "local spaces that can become the hub of the local community and making sure that people do look at different collaborations locally, whether that's with local charities providing physical activity and exercise or local charities that provide volunteers to look after the green spaces and just making sure that all those things are considered in terms of local people having that space that they've got within 15 minutes of home".

For the future, the Forum wants to "continue to deliver quality service to members" including CPD offerings, via learning events and knowledge sharing.

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