‘Cinderella’ warning for parks and green space

A new national survey shows the impact of the recession and service cuts on parks and green space jobs.

Bradford apprentice Dan Palmer. Photo by Robert Gray.

Green space skills, a survey commissioned by CABE and English Heritage, is the first to reveal the full extent of skills shortages in the green space sector, in careers ranging from parks managers to tree surgeons.

Employers in the public, private and third sectors were surveyed, and the results shows that public parks and other green spaces are seen as a Cinderella service for many local authorities and are often the first to be cut.

A quarter of employers in the public sector expect a decrease in recruitment and a fifth say that green space departments are experiencing a greater reduction in budgets than other local authority departments. Funding cuts hit green spaces hard, as they rely on consistent and skilled maintenance.

Annual training budgets for people working in parks and green spaces in the public sector are 20 per cent lower less than their colleagues (an average of £245 vs £305).

Green space skills shows an urgent need to address the skills shortfall to tackle climate change. Planning, design and management are what are needed to help to adapt green spaces to a changing climate, and these were exactly the skills which employers felt their staff most lacked.