Executive Summary

Preston parks and open green spaces are the green lungs of the City, providing many benefits for residents and visitors. These range from providing opportunity to exercise to encouraging people to develop news skills supporting them with future career ambitions.

This Strategy lists a series of objectives designed to improve all sites, underpinned by a vision and a list of ambitions, which the City Council will aim to deliver over the next ten years.

To determine these objectives, consultation was undertaken with a variety of key stakeholders, including Council officers, park stakeholders and members of the public. Consultation findings are reflected within the report.

The objectives focus on improving and maintaining the eight key park sites in the Authority, making recommendations on how use of allotments can be maximised, considering how best to enhance tree coverage across the City and ensuring that biodiversity (confirming the Council's climate change priorities) is at the core of any future decision making.

Key Recommendations

The key recommendations emanating from the strategy are to:

• Provide an appropriate maintenance programme for all park sites and green spaces
• Develop masterplans for the remaining six park sites, delivering the projects listed
• Continue to seek and secure external funding to support delivery of future projects
• Ensure that biodiversity underpins all future decision making
• Commission a tree strategy to support a healthy tree population across the City
• Ensure that allotments remain accessible and of the highest quality, supporting the City's communities.