THE NATURAL HEALTH SERVICE The health benefits of parks and green spaces
- Chris Worman
- Sep 15
- 4 min read
Updated: Oct 29
 | Chris has over 40 years’ experience in the parks industry and is currently South Derbyshire District Council’s Parks and Green Spaces Manager, where he is responsible for a range of green spaces, from local parks to large areas of the National Forest which includes 154 acres of forest and the Rosliston Forestry Centre. Being passionate about parks and green spaces for as long as he can remember, he became a Green Flag Award judge from the very start of the awards, and over the past 29 years volunteering, has had the opportunity to judge hundreds of parks both around the UK and beyond. He has undertaken a number of international judging tours including Spain, The United Arab Emirates, Mexico, America and Saudi Arabia. For his service to the Green Flag Awards and public parks he was awarded an MBE in the Queens 9th Birthday honours in 2016. In 2017 Chris was appointed to the UK Governments Parks Action Group as the parks industry representative and in 2024 was appointed chair of the UK Government’s new Parks Working Group. He is also one of the founder members of the Parks Management Association and is a member of The Royal Parks Guild. |
Chris makes a plea to treating open spaces as essential infrastructure: “the huge benefits of parks and green spaces are just ignored by decision makers and only valued by the cost of cutting the grass. In my view this is very short sighted and is why our health costs are now running out of control.” x |
It’s difficult to believe it’s 5 years since the Coronavirus pandemic with lockdowns and queuing around supermarket car parks. How we valued our parks and green spaces during those dark days when we could not visit anyone.
Five years on, we continue to hear time and time again of the precarious nature of our NHS and the nation’s health, and that given the current trajectory, we simply cannot afford to fund it to the level that we all expect.
Undervalued parks and green spaces
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When you look at all the treatment costs associated with the wide range of illnesses, my grandmother’s old phrase of prevention is better than cure springs into my head. Yet, time after time, the huge benefits of parks and green spaces are just ignored by decision makers and only valued by the cost of cutting the grass. In my view this is very short sighted and is why our health costs are now running out of control.
We have lost so much during austerity, leaving many local green spaces unmaintained with poor or no facilities, no staff, unsafe, and little reason to visit. Yet with investment these spaces - which you can find in every village, town and city - can be green heath centres, where people can benefit from being more active, outdoors and close to nature.
However, people will only use green spaces that provide a quality, safe and well-maintained environment and deliver facilities for the local community which can encourage people to be more active than they otherwise might have been. Its not rocket science, its simple things like choosing to walk rather than take a car journey. It is taking your children to the local park, rather than traveling to an escape room. Or simply sitting on a park bench to de-stress and help with our mental health.
In today’s political language, it’s a great invest to save project!
The financial case
In the 2024 Office for National Statistics natural capital accounts, it identified the health benefits from recreation at £489bn.
Research shows that that frequent use of parks is worth £30bn per year to the British public, and by encouraging the public to meet their recommended weekly activity, could improve the quality of life by £2bn p.a. (Preventive Medicine Volume 91, October 2016, Pages 383-38). This could release 40% of the current healthcare budget to be reallocated, and in reality, only a fraction of this would be needed in parks, allowing for funding to be realised for other government priorities (Future Parks Accelerator).
Everyone I speak to recognises the value of parks and green spaces and when spaces are under threat, communities come together to fight for them.
With all the learning from the pandemic years, the plethora of data that supports the need and benefits of green spaces, the climate emergency, ecological emergency and cost of living crisis, surely then the time is right now to take our parks seriously.
Unless we do, the multitude of benefits will be lost, and our health and environmental costs will just continue to spiral out of control.
Make a positive change
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The challenge remains on how to convince our national and local leaders to make a positive change.
With correct funding we can start to address our skills shortage and attract a younger, more diverse workforce that makes a real impact on how we are judged by future generations.
Parks remain a great leveller and should be above politics, and be recognised and valued for all their benefits, from the massive impact on our health and wellbeing, supporting sustainable communities, helping with climate change mitigation, and supporting biodiversity, rather just the binary cost of cutting the grass.
I passionately believe parks and green spaces are essential infrastructure and should therefore be funded as such. It will need vision, strong leadership and cross-party collaboration to make a positive change, but we could make a step change for the generations to come.
Despite the financial challenges the new government faces, there appears to be an understanding of the value of our parks and green spaces, and it has established a new Parks Working Group of which I am fortunate enough to be chair, so let’s see where that takes us!
I conclude with a quote from the great American landscape architect and park designer Frederick Law Olmsted:
“Parks are a reflection of what life should be, a reminder that there is always space for renewal and transformation”.
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