Urban Greenspace

CCW’s work on urban greenspace is central to our aims to improve the quality of the environment close to where people live and to encourage people to participate in the outdoors.

For many people, these places are the only way to experience the health and well-being benefits of the outdoors and contact with nature. Lack of time, money or transport may prevent people from travelling far from where they live or work in order to enjoy the outdoors, making the provision of quality, accessible, local greenspace critical to increasing participation.

Urban greenspace ranges from public parks and gardens, playing fields, derelict land, to woodlands, wetlands, farmland and coastal areas on urban fringe. All of these greenspaces can provide for the experience of nature close to where most people live.

CCW’s urban greenspace work is about facilitating partners to plan for provision and improvement of accessible green areas.

The Green Space Toolkit is designed to help local authorities plan and improve natural green areas for people in towns and cities. The Toolkit sets out Accessible Natural Greenspace Standards in order to help local authorities in identifying the current level of provision of accessible natural greenspace.

It’s about ensuring that people have places to enjoy the outdoors nature close to their homes. Research has shown just how important these spaces are for social contact and for promoting people’s physical and mental well-being.

Some accessible natural greenspaces such as Country Parks and Local Nature Reserves, are shown on CCW’s Outdoor Wales onLine maps which also provide information on how accessible these places are for everyone, including walkers with families and less able visitors, together with details on how to reach walks and sites by public transport.