Love Parks Week - An annual celebration of parks and green spaces

All good things come to an end, right? The World Cup. The sunny weather. Love Island. They can't last forever. However, our love of parks is enduring. Parks provide space for locals to interact with each other and meet new people. They’re also great spaces for events and for people to engage in all kinds of recreational activities, to play together, exercise together and even (ahem) make music together!

With the rather worrying recent research carried out by ‘Keep Britain Tidy’ which revealed that increasingly parents have ‘no time’ to take kids to the park, now is more important than ever to recognise the importance these local green spaces have on our lives - especially in childhood. A huge 75% of children say they would like to spend more time in the great outdoors, and four out of five parents (80%) admit that they would like their child to spend more time outside, so the need to protect them for future generations is greater than ever – we need to use them, or sadly potentially lose them.

So, because parks are so important, a week each year – Love Parks Week – is dedicated to really recognise the importance of them. This year’s theme ‘It started in a park’ celebrates all those fantastic firsts that are made possible thanks to our wonderful parks. Think your first cartwheel, learning to ride a bike, kite flying or roller skating or even your first kiss. Spending quality family and friends time, local parks are where memories are made.

‘Love Parks Week’ aims to encourage everyone, young and old, to get out and enjoy their favourite park. Spending time in a park is a great way to embrace a bit of nature and improve your mental well-being - plus by using and celebrating your local park, you’ll be helping to protect them for the future. Using the hashtag #LoveParks the people of the UK are being asked to share their favourite childhood memories of things they learnt to do at the park. We’d love to see some musically themed tags appear. Including outdoor musical instruments in a park offers a truly multi-generational opportunity for people of all ages to play alongside each other. Like parks, music has a great power for bringing people together and also has countless benefits; psychological, spiritual, and physical - as well as creating wonderful happy memories.

There’s not much you can get for free these days so what are you waiting for? Get out there and share the park love! I’ll be dropping my son off to Scouts in the local park tonight for a game of rounders followed by a massive water fight – making some more childhood memories in the park.