Investing in our parks and green spaces

Whether it’s a lunch­time walk through Princes Street Gar­dens, park run­ners in Hailes Quarry or fam­il­ies enjoy­ing the week­end at Leith Links, our parks and green spaces are part of every­day life for thou­sands of people across the city.

Just this past week­end I joined res­id­ents, vis­it­ors and col­leagues to open Drakkar’s Drift in Vic­toria Park, a fant­astic new addi­tion that is a true cel­eb­ra­tion of local cre­ativ­ity meet­ing inter­na­tional hor­ti­cul­tural excel­lence.

It’s encour­aging to see Edin­burgh recog­nised for the qual­ity of its parks. Around half of Scot­land’s Green Flag parks are here in the Cap­ital, and the coun­cil now man­ages more Green Flag Award parks than any other local author­ity in the UK.

These awards reflect the hard work of our parks teams and the con­tri­bu­tion of the many Friends of Parks groups. The con­tri­bu­tion of volun­teers, com­munity groups and part­ner organ­isa­tions also help care for these spaces year-round.

We’ve also taken import­ant steps recently to strengthen the pro­tec­tion of some of Edin­burgh’s most val­ued nat­ural spaces. Wester Crai­glock­hart Hill and Green­bank Com­munity Wood­land, along­side Little France Park, have been des­ig­nated as Local Nature Reserves, recog­nising their import­ance for wild­life, edu­ca­tion and recre­ation.

At the same time, we are con­tinu­ing to invest in our parks so that they remain safe, access­ible and wel­com­ing. Edin­burgh recently became the first city in the UK to intro­duce a new solar-powered light­ing sys­tem across some of its parks. The tech­no­logy improves vis­ib­il­ity, thereby increas­ing safety dur­ing darker hours while sup­port­ing our wider envir­on­mental ambi­tions.

There is more to come. Through invest­ment from the Tran­si­ent Vis­itor Levy, Leith Links and Inver­leith Park will each receive £4 mil­lion to improve facil­it­ies. This will hope­fully see an improved Pétanque Rink in Inver­leith and a skate­park in Leith Links among the addi­tions. A fur­ther invest­ment of £4m is also avail­able for many of Edin­burgh’s major parks, includ­ing Princes Street Gar­dens, The Mead­ows and Brunts­field Links, Calton Hill, Saughton Park and Laur­is­ton Castle grounds.

Main­tain­ing high-qual­ity parks is a shared respons­ib­il­ity. While the coun­cil will con­tinue to invest in facil­it­ies, main­ten­ance and improve­ments, every­one who enjoys these spaces can play a part in look­ing after them. Simple actions such as tak­ing lit­ter home, giv­ing con­sid­er­a­tion to where they place bar­be­cues, and respect­ing the nat­ural envir­on­ment help ensure our parks remain enjoy­able for all.