It was Box Office Phil's budget last week and to be honest there wasn't much said of direct interest to the turf professional sector.

However as the Sport & Recreation Alliance pointed out in a statement following last Wednesday's announcements, there is a worry that due to what was said about housing plans, there needs to be a focus on protecting our incredibly valuable parks and green spaces.

Regarding these housing plans, the Alliance’s Director of Policy, Governance and External Affairs, James Allen said, “A commitment to building more homes - although an admirable pledge - should not come at the expense of our green spaces. Parks and outdoor spaces are vital to getting more people active and we need to make sure our green space is protected and made available to benefit the nation’s health and wellbeing.

"As set out in our manifesto, we believe a national Green Spaces Panel would help protect the quality and quantity of green spaces, which is arguably now more important than ever given today’s announcement."

This timely warning by the Alliance comes just a couple of weeks after quite worrying findings were published about the state of public parks in Scotland. Greenspace Scotland released the findings of their 2017 Greenspace Use and Attitude survey which didn't make pleasant reading. This report quite depressingly showed the downward trend in the deteriorating quality of Scotland’s parks and greenspaces has continued.

Whilst the survey confirms that Scots still love their parks, with over 90% of urban Scots saying it is important to have greenspace in their local area, the quality of Scotland’s parks and greenspaces has continued to decline, and this means that fewer people are using their local greenspaces regularly.

The survey reflected that 40% of people agreed or agreed strongly that the quality of their local greenspace has reduced in the last 5 years (up from 33% in 2011) and this figure rises to 50% for people living in the more deprived areas (up from 35% in 2011).

From a peak, in 2009, when nearly two-thirds (63%) of urban Scots used their local greenspace once a week or more often; frequency of use and quality ratings have fallen steadily, with less than half (43%) of Scots visiting their local greenspace weekly in 2017. This is apparently the lowest figure since the survey first started in 2004.

This of course begs the question why have these standards fallen so dramatically, putting users off from enjoying their local park? Quite simply it's funding.

Greenspace Scotland says greenspace use and quality ratings both peaked in 2009 and since then have fallen steadily. These downward trends closely mirror cuts in local authority budgets: benchmarking data from the Improvement Service shows that annual expenditure by Scottish Councils on parks and greenspace has fallen from £190 million in 2010/11 to £167 million in 2014/15.

Julie Procter, Chief Executive of Greenspace Scotland said, “Cost-savings on Council parks budgets over the last 5 years of less than the cost of one mile of new motorway or equivalent to less than the cost of one cinema ticket per year per person in Scotland have had far-reaching and unintended consequences on the condition of our greenspace. Even more worrying, is how this has impacted to reduce our use of parks and greenspaces."

And it's not just in Scotland of course where spending on parks is being slashed. Speaking earlier this year on the launch of the Select Committee’s report on the Inquiry into Public Parks in England, Clive Betts MP, Chair of the Committee described the situation with parks as being at a "tipping point".

So more than ever we need groups like Greenspace Scotland, the Sport & Recreation Alliance and others like them to be fighting the corner for parks and greenspaces. Turf professionals know better than most the true value of these assets to communities across the nation. Their decline needs to be halted and reversed.