Local authorities have subsequently announced huge cuts to park budgets – 50% in Liverpool, and more than 60% in Newcastle. Others seek alternative sources of funding that threaten the integrity of public space, like Go Ape or Winter Wonderland. These range from the mildly irritating – the Chinook helicopter that hovered over my nearest park filming James Bond for several hours in the middle of the night last summer – to the potentially devastating, such as in Bexley, where the council is selling off at least four of its open spaces.

More will follow. Our parks are in the midst of a funding crisis which will almost certainly see the commercial world take another step inside our public space. Despite the widely recognised benefits that parks provide – in terms of health and wellbeing, social cohesion and biodiversity, as well as protection against flooding and defence against pollution – there is no national body to protect them and no statutory requirement for councils to pay for them.

Local authorities have subsequently announced huge cuts to park budgets – 50% in Liverpool, and more than 60% in Newcastle. Others seek alternative sources of funding that threaten the integrity of public space, like Go Ape or Winter Wonderland. These range from the mildly irritating – the Chinook helicopter that hovered over my nearest park filming James Bond for several hours in the middle of the night last summer – to the potentially devastating, such as in Bexley, where the council is selling off at least four of its open spaces. …”