Save Our Partks

National Federation of Parks and Green SpacesAmplifying the voices of the Friends Groups' movementwww.natfedparks.org.uk/parks-petition.html 

Please forward to all your members, contacts, family, friends, neighbours and colleagues....
UK Parks PetitionSAVE OUR PARKS! Protect and invest in the UK’s green spaces-  Help prevent the slide into crisis
-  Let's make parks a general election issue in 2015


Please support and publicise to everyone in the UKClick here to sign: http://chn.ge/TXdqhj
Parks and green spaces are an essential and unique resource and service, vital to every local community and serving a wide range of important needs for people of all ages and interests. However, the June 2014 'State of UK Public Parks' report documented the alarming slide into a long-term crisis being caused by the underfunding of the UK's parks. We are now at a tipping point. It is up to all those who know and care to raise their voices together.

The inspirational rise of the Friends Groups movement over the last 15 years (with now over 5,000 groups), and the hard work and expertise of green space staff, managers and professionals, has demonstrated the commitment of the public and all those who love parks. We believe that there must now be an equivalent recognition and commitment from the political parties and the next Government in 2015. Let's make this an election issue! 

Please help get as many signatures as you can...

1. Sign the petition: http://chn.ge/TXdqhj2. Spread the news via Twitter: @LoveParks_Week  #LoveParks
3. Spread the news via Facebook: www.facebook.com/ukparkspetition - and also:www.facebook.com/LoveParksWeek
4. Refer to the Parks Petition webpage: www.natfedparks.org.uk/parks-petition.html
5. Download and take round a Sign Up Sheet: www.natfedparks.org.uk/mediapool/118/1181937/data/NFPGSpetitionHardCopySignUpSheet_1_.pdf6. Download and hand out leaflets: www.natfedparks.org.uk/mediapool/118/1181937/data/NFPGSpetitionleaflet2014_1_.pdf
Please spread the word far and wide!

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THE FULL PETITION TEXT
Click here to sign: http://chn.ge/TXdqhj 

SAVE OUR PARKS! Protect and invest in the UK’s green spaces -  Help prevent the slide into crisis The next Government, in 2015, must:
- hold a national inquiry into the funding and management of the UK's green spaces
- bring in a statutory duty to monitor and manage these spaces to Green Flag Award standard
- ensure adequate public resources for all green spaces

We call for all political parties to include these policies in their election manifestos.

Our local green spaces are vital for everyone and every community, and for all age groups and interests!  They are an essential and unique service promoting relaxation, recreation and play, wildlife and bio-diversity, green jobs and skills, heritage, flood control, health and social well-being, and community cohesion.

However, there is growing alarm from the public, from Friends of Parks groups, and from parks managers, about the serious long-term damage being caused by dramatic cuts to green space budgets for staff and maintenance, and the lack of funding and investment by local and national government. If not reversed, this neglect will cause them to go into decline and become problem spaces abandoned by park users and plagued by vandalism.

This unfolding slide into crisis must be halted. It's time for action.