The third State of Scotland’s Greenspace Report was published by greenspace scotland on 1 February 2018, shpowing that Scotland can rightly claim to be a nation of green towns and cities. Urban Scotland is more green than grey, with greenspace covering over half (54%) of the urban land area.

The total area of greenspace in urban Scotland is 1,593 square kilometres – that’s equivalent 22 Loch Lomonds or one-third of the area of the Cairngorms National Park. At a more human scale, that translates into a tennis court sized area of ‘publicly accessible’ greenspace per person.

Julie Procter, Chief Executive of greenspace scotland said:

“It’s great to see that urban Scotland is more green than grey, but Scotland must not rest on its green laurels; this study raises important questions about the quality of greenspace in our towns and cities. It shows that Scotland’s greenspace is not delivering to its maximum potential for our people and our places. Whilst many of our parks and greenspaces are still in good heart, the Report shows we are rapidly approaching a tipping point leading to the downward spiral of reduced maintenance, poorer quality greenspaces and lower levels of use – meaning we are at risk of losing the wonderful health, social and environmental benefits that quality greenspaces provide.”

The report highlights that parks and greenspace are important to people whilst at the same time ratings of greenspace quality are falling which is having an impact on use. As we area already aware Council budgets are under pressure.

Download the report here – http://www.greenspacescotland.org.uk/state-of-scotlands-greenspace.aspx

Greenspace matters…
Read 3rd State of Scotland’s #Greenspace report https://t.co/fEyg45Zsnu pic.twitter.com/zIP5kio50H

— greenspace scotland (@greenspacescot) February 2, 2018