Parks and Green Spaces APPG

Now more than ever, the value of our nation’s parks and green spaces is profoundly evident.

Green infrastructure plays an integral role in tackling issues from climate adaptation to biodiversity and public health, prioritising parks is vital for our future. Through bringing together key stakeholders from local authorities to Parliamentarians, the group addresses the most urgent issues affecting our green spaces, including but not limited to funding, inequality of access to nature, climate change, biodiversity and the impact they have on the nation’s health and wellbeing.

Keep Britain Tidy provides the secretariat for the Parks & Green Spaces APPG, which was established in late 2020 and is chaired by Afzal Khan MP

If you have any questions about the APPG and how to get involved, please contact henry.bettley@keepbritaintidy.org.

Current Members

Afzal Khan (Chair)

Baroness Thornton (Vice Chair)

Lord Blencathra (Vice Chair)

Vikki Slade (Vice Chair)

Alistair Strathern

Amanda Martin

Andrew Rosindell

Baroness Hooper

Barry Gardiner

Cat Eccles

Charlie Dewhirst

Claire Young

Clive Betts

Danny Beales

Dave Robertson

David Burton-Sampson

Deirdre Costigan

Helen Maguire

Iqbal Mohamed

James Cartlidge

James Wild

Jim Shannon

Jo Platt

Joe Morris

John Taylor of Holbeach

Josh Dean

Josh Fenton-Glynn

Josh Newbury

Julie Minns

Kieran Mullan

Layla Moran

Matt Vickers

Mike Wood

Munira Wilson

Navendu Mishra

Nesil Caliskan

Paul Kohler

Paul Waugh

Peter Dowd

Polly Billington

Rachel Taylor

Rebecca Smith

Sarah Coombes

Sarah Dyke

Shaun Davies

Shockat Adam

Sir John Hayes

Steve Darling

Wendy Morton

Yasmin Qureshi

Upcoming Meetings:

TBC

Previous Meetings

EGM & 5 Year Review of the Inquiry into the Future of Parks: Our second meeting was held on 8 July 2021, bringing together parliamentarians and parks sector representatives to review progress made in the 5 years since the launch of the Select Committee Inquiry into the Future of Public Parks. Speakers included Clive Betts MP, who chaired the inquiry, alongside representatives from local government, friends groups and regional parks forums. You can watch the full meeting recording here and a highlights reel here.

Allison Ogden-Newton, Chief Executive of Keep Britain Tidy, said: “The meeting brought together parks sector representatives and MPs in a passionate discussion about the uncertain future of our parks and greenspaces. We had a fantastic outcome, with Clive Betts MP agreeing to hold a formal review of his committee’s hard hitting inquiry into the future of parks and through that review we hope will draw much-needed attention to the profile of greenspaces on the Westminster agenda.

“We know that to protect parks from further degradation policy change is needed at the highest level which is a key objective of the support Keep Britain Tidy provides for the Parks & Green Spaces APPG with our work as the platform’s secretariat.”

Levelling Up Access to Good Quality Parks and Greenspaces: The first Parks and Greenspaces APPG meeting was held on 1 March 2021. The APPG heard from Professor John Newton, Director of Health Improvement at Public Health England, Hamira Sultan, Consultant in Public Health and Future Parks Accelerator Director at Birmingham City Council, and Allison Ogden-Newton, Chief Executive of Keep Britain Tidy, about the critical role that parks play in supporting health outcomes within communities and how we can solve the current inequality of provision and access to good quality green spaces around the country. We were delighted to welcome over 300 industry stakeholders to the meeting. Watch a highlights reel from the meeting here.