A Park for the People: examining the creation and refurbishment of a public park

Abstract

This paper takes an historical perspective to examine the social and community motivations for public parks and their funding. Public parks can be some of the most valuable green infrastructure assets; understanding why they were created and how they have developed can usefully inform current international practice. Analysis is of one the UK's first public parks, Peel Park, Salford, Greater Manchester and draws on documentary material from the Park's creation in the 1840s and its refurbishment in the 2010s. Common and long-lived expectations for community cohesion are found, but for contemporary management we highlight the importance of park quality and understanding public parks as part of wider equality issues. We also argue that entrepreneurial municipalism and diversified funding arrangements introduce diverse politics and interests to park provision. A lack of government funding, and thus a reliance on charitable and philanthropic sources, also potentially categorise public park provision as non-essential.

Diversifying Local Government Funding in Implementing Green Open Space for Green City Development: A Systematic Literature Review

“…As presented in Table 3, the three themes are public (3 sub-themes), public-private (4 sub-themes), and community-public-private (5 sub-themes). More specifically, it should be noted that seven previous studies focused on the United Kingdom (UK) local government financial resources (Smith, 2021;Barker et al, 2020;Hayes & Dockerill, 2020;Nam & Dempsey, 2020;Mell, 2020;Dickinson et al, 2019;Mell, 2017) and two studies examined worldwide in general perspective (Toxopeus & Polzin, 2021;Richards & Thompson, 2019) 2017) and six articles employed from review and concept paper (Toxopeus & Polzin, 2021;Barker et al, 2020;Mell, 2020;Dickinson et al, 2019;Richards & Thompson, 2019;Mell, 2017).…”

“…Crowdfunding is one of the alternatives and innovative financial resources generated under CPPP approach and has become a new funding instrument where the community as organisers and managers including a diverse group of partners and financiers together generate funds to fund the cost of GOS implementation in the UK (Trovato, 2021). Crowdfunding activities such as philanthropic and public donations are often practiced in Salford, Greater Manchester, UK (Hayes & Dockerill, 2020). In Tirana, Albania the Pallati me shigjeta Pocket Park has been managed by Co-PLAN Institute for Habitat Development, Tirana municipality, residents, and professional groups as well as funded by international and local donors (Hamdy & Plaku, 2021).…”