Green Spaces and the Health Budgets

re-posted from the BBC

In Australia planning authorities and government administrative services sections still do not address the proven links between health and the access to open spaces. One has to only look to the small budgets for parks initiatives and worse still to the shrinking allocations for park maintenance within local governments.

Meanwhile all our governments are under stress because of the increasing requirements being identified under their health portfolios.

While dealing with the present health issues of the urban populations remains absolutely urgent, it makes sense to also be thinking and legislating in ways that will mitigate some of the health and wellbeing issues. There is such a simple link between green spaces and the health budgets.

In the UK with the conservative governments has been cutting spending to all areas, while being concerned about how to resource their citizens’ health requirements.

The BBC reported that the Woodland Trust’s chief executive has said increasing people’s access to green spaces could cut billions of pounds from the NHS healthcare bill. Sue Holden said it had been calculated that the NHS could save £2.1bn a year if everyone had access to green spaces.

She made the comments at an event to mark the culmination of the five-year VisitWoods project. Ms Holden added that only an estimated 14% of the UK’s population had “easy access to trees”.

click here for the full article about Green Spaces and the Health Budgets.