Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
development saw a similar neglect of existing open spaces (Open Spaces Society 1992).
The rise of partnerships with community groups in an era of declining municipal
provision was reflected in the former Countryside Commission (now the Countryside
Agency) initiative in 1996 to create 1000 millennium greens by the year 2000. Although
this ambitious target was subsequently modified to 250 greens, a stimulus was the
competitively funded 50 per cent grant towards site acquisition and creation works (with
50 per cent to be generated from the local community). A Millennium Green (MG) could
be located in or on the edge of a city, town, suburb, village or hamlet, and be up to 30
acres in size. The Countryside Agency received £10 million of Lottery Funding from the
Millennium Commission and each green had to meet the following basic criteria:
• The site is to be held on trust as a permanent resource for the local community,
normally through purchase or donation of the free-hold.
• There is public support for the proposal, which also demonstrates that the Millennium
Green is needed and that it will make a substantial contribution to the life of the
community.
• Anyone may use any part of the land on foot, for informal enjoyment and play.
• Local people will be able to reach the Millennium Green safely and conveniently from
their home.
• The community has viable and convincing proposals for the long-term management of
the site.
• The Millennium Green could not happen without Millennium Commission funding and
convincing proposals from the community (Countryside Agency 2000).
Priority was granted to proposals creating new areas of green space, and by late 1998 252
Site Preparation Grants had been awarded, of which 120 received full funding from
partnerships. By 1999, 843 groups had made an initial application (Curry 2000). A
comparison of the spatial distribution of Country Parks and MGs, both of which are the
main post-war state initiatives to create national recreation sites, revealed an interesting
pattern. The Country Parks were haphazard and sporadic in their distribution and the
pattern of MGs is not dissimilar.
Many of the initiators of MGs were from the more affluent sections of society, and
beneficiaries may be returning to politics of Victorian park founding observed by Maver
(1998) in Glasgow. Here the politics of voluntary involvement and activity may simply
reinforce patterns of inequality in recreational provision, reflecting political processes
and other factors (e.g. human agency) shaping the landscape and pattern of leisure spaces.
Having briefly examined the evolution of urban recreational opportunities in Britain
since the 1880s, it is pertinent to focus on one example which typifies the development
processes in time and space, notably the evolution of parks and open space. This is
considered in relation to one particular city in Britain: Leicester.
CASE STUDY: The evolution of parks and open space in Victorian Leicester
The development of open space in towns and cities in Britain traditionally developed
through the emergence of commons and walks prior to the nineteenth century, followed
by private squares and greens for the wealthy classes. While towns and cities remained
small in scale, the populations
