Parks funding solutions for local authorities:Ground-breaking conference: The Future of Parks: Policy, Practice & Research

摘要

When it comes to the much-debated future for public parks it is often said there is no one-size-fits-all solution. This was aptly demonstrated at The Future of Parks: Policy, Practice & Research conference held at the British Academy on 13 July, whenpractitioners outlined solutions developed by local authorities, contractors and other models.The ground-breaking conference was hosted by the University of Leeds and sponsored by Leeds Social Sciences Institute and idverde, with support from The Parks Alliance (TPA), Groundwork and Historic England. It succeeded in its aims to bring together researchers, policy-makers and practitioners to explore the role and value of public parks in the 21st century, to explore both academic research and on-the-ground experience and discuss the various ways the parks sector can and is coping with the funding crisis. It was also a valuable networking space and discussed where further research would be useful to the sector, rather than simply interesting.