I've spoken about the value of parks to the health and well-being of the British public on here many times.
Professionally maintained public spaces are a benefit which I think we all appreciate, but which I suppose has been hard to quantify other than through anecdotal evidence.
Well this past week a report has been published that claims to put an actual monetary figure on just how important public parks and open spaces are to us all. A scientific survey, presented in the journal Preventative Medicine, says that outdoor exercise offers an astounding £2.2bn of health benefits to adults in England each year!
The BBC reported that scientists have calculated that more than eight million people each week took at least 30 minutes of "green exercise". They hope the results highlight how encouraging more people to use parks will help reverse the trend of rising obesity levels across the UK.
Talking to BBC News lead author Mathew White from the European Centre for Environment and Human Health at the University of Exeter said, "What we look at here is something that can be converted relatively simply into monetary values.
"What we have done here is to focus on those people who use the natural environment for enough activity a week (5x30 minutes) in order to justify gains in their health.
"First of all we looked at the total number of people that went to the natural environment in England each year. Then we looked at the total number of people who engage in what we call an active visit (cycling, walking, running etc).
"We then looked at how often they did that, and if they did it enough times to benefit their health which we converted into something called Quality Adjusted Life Years, which could then be converted into monetary estimates."
So whilst of course this figure of £2.2billion a year can only ever be a estimate, it's great to be able to point to a scientifically calculated estimate when justifying just how vital parks and their continued professional maintenance are to the health of the population.
Stressing the importance of public space maintenance is a subject which was also highlighted recently in a presentation given by John Moverley, Independent chairman of the Amenity Forum. He said that effective weed control was vital for a safe and healthy environment and for maintaining amenity areas fit for purpose and use. This applied to weed control for streets and pavements, our transport networks, parks, sports surfaces, airports, shopping centres and more.
It was important, John said, that such control is undertaken by trained professionals working to plans with an integrated approach involving appropriate cultural, non-chemical and chemical approaches.
The Amenity Forum have their annual conference coming up soon and John said this will be a great opportunity to "send out a strong message of the sector's commitment to best practice, the vital importance of the work undertaken and the real professionalism."
Very well said and let's hope that publicity such as this and the £2.2billion figure keeps funding for the skilled, professional upkeep of parks and open spaces very much on the national agenda.
