There are urban areas of England where no one lives within a 15-minute walk of nature, government data shows, as ministers scramble to meet their access to nature targets.
While the data shows 80% of people live within walking distance of green or blue spaces such as a river, park or woodland, it also reveals a disparity between rural and poorer urban areas.
Everyone will have to have access to green or blue space under the government’s environmental improvement plan, published at the end of last year.
Seriously, who let the gurning morons impose a target like that?
We’ve near no army nor navy left, The Musselmans are invading the beaches and government is measuring how many feet you live from a riverside walk? And then, get this, promising to make more?
The access minister, Sue Hayman, said: “Spending time in nature is so important for our mental and physical wellbeing, and this government is committed to delivering better access to nature for people across the country, no matter where they live.
“Access to nature still varies hugely between areas and we are working to make sure that this is a guarantee, not a postcode lottery. We have already taken action to improve access to nature by announcing the first of nine national river walks, the Mersey Valley Way and two new national forests.”
Fuck’s Sake. Hang the Lanyard Class
I’m sure that green spaces occupied by drug dealers, the homeless, asylum seekers and rapists will be a welcome addition to the lives of all urbanites.
Seriously, why do the government think English people are fleeing the cities in the first place?
I should write to the dog-owning minister demanding to live within an hour’s walk of a wolf.
“… it also reveals a disparity between rural and poorer urban areas.”
Somebody got paid for a report that there are more trees in forests than outside forests. It’s enraging.
Surely the obvious solution is using small tactical nukes to obliterate any urban areas more than the mandated 15 minutes walk from nature. Even better neutron bombs could be used as they would meet the requirement of stopping people “living” more than 15 minutes from nature without actually totally destroying the urban areas that might have other uses.
And of course, no dogs. They upset our lovely new neighbours.
Rhoda hopes the dog thing will be the last straw.
I have been dog-sitting in the City for the last two weeks, and one of my small pleasures has been allowing the dog to approach Muslims – two hijab-ed women have screamed with disgust…
First time I took my dog up to London, I discovered that he’s very racist.
There’s a news report in the ‘Mail’ and ‘Guardian’ today about two of those minorities that government was so keen to see enjoying the British countryside drowning in a Welsh pool because they couldn’t swim, so maybe its safer for some not to be only 15 mins from nature.
Given all newspapers are reporting the drowning deaths of two of those minorities that the government was so keen to get into the British countryside in a Welsh pool, perhaps it’s safer the further away you are?
The Diversity doesn’t like Nature, and no-one has ever given a fuck about the gammons. Jonathan has it right. Try to go for a nice walk or take your child to play in urban “nature” and you’ll have a formative experience you could have done without.
True. There used to be a “natural” area at the Finsbury Park end of the Parklands Walk. (May still be?) Infested with expectant queerboys because of the convenient bushes.
You found that yet, Norm? Finsbury Park to Highgate Wood along the old railway line. Then from the end of Cranley Gardens past Muswell Hill to Ally Pally along that redundant railway line. Down the hill & back into Crouch End through Priory Park. It’s a good 2 hour hike using hardly any roads.
It’s at the end of my back garden, BiS. Make frequent use of it. Not a place to go at night, though.
We have the 15 minute cities and now the 15 minutes from green and blue spaces. What is it with these people and their “15 minutes”?
Anyway, why don’t they make it 30 minutes, it will be much healthier for people?
@ BiND
“Why don’t they make it 30 minutes”
Because they would find it a struggle to walk for 30 minutes – further down the page one finds out that they mean 800 metres so they are walking at just under two miles an hour.
In geography class in school I vaguely remember a rule of thumb suggesting that the central business district for most cities was about “15 minutes walk” across. The idea being that this was about as far as people wanted to move to conduct business before telephones, and it didn’t really change after that.
I think this rule of thumb has been repeated so often that it’s now hardened into what they use for “deprivation”
For my geography O level I wrote a little piece about how that very thing destroyed Sheffield’s “concept” of a city centre, as it was hugely long and narrow. I asserted it was due to the history of Sheffield originally being three seperate local authorities, each of which geographically met near the current city centre, and naturally, each one wanted their own Head Office near the the centre. And being in valleys the urban area expanded along the rivers so we ended up with a “centre” that was 1.5 miles long and 20 feet wide.
If you went into town to go to the markets, you never went toU+0294 Moor; if you frequented The Moor you never went to the markets. It was reflected in transport routes – buses either came in from the suburbs and were convenient for the markets or for The Moor, but rarely both. We ended up with duplicates of large outlets – M&S on The Moor and on Fargate, Atkinsons on The Moor and on High Street. It was a common trope of arranging to meet somebody “outside X” and waiting at the wrong one.
And it developed into socioeconomic segregation, posh people from the south-west shopped on The Moor, the oiks from the council estates in the north went to the markets.
Just go to Rotherham or Chesterfield and they had a “proper” town centre as the centre was always the core of a single “place”.
Hat is tipped, comment is nicked.
“Nature” is an incoherent concept. You could argue that “nature” has scarcely existed since early hominids mastered fire.
Paraphrasing PJ O’R, nature is that thing trying to kill you any time you go outdoors.
I couldn’t find it in a book to get the quote right, but it’s there somewhere.
WTF has that got to do with it? People don’t walk for 15 minutes.
I do – but not when I’m walking 800 metres (that’s nearer 5 minutes)
I’m wearing out a bit, 15mins is 1200m for me.
“Fuck’s Sake. Hang the Lanyard Class”
We really do have a quite insane situation in this country of pissing away money while basic stuff isn’t being done.
“Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy has announced that £1.5 billion will be invested to save more than 1000 cherished arts venues, museums, libraries and heritage buildings across England from closure. The move will fix urgent capital needs and open up access to culture for everyone, everywhere.”
Go to any of these museums and libraries and you wouldn’t be able to get a basketball team together with everyone visiting at the time. “Arts venues” will be artwank places with a load of shit, basically, a job creation scheme for middle class women. Heritage buildings? If people cared, they’d pay money to go into them.
Fact is, most of this stuff should have the listing taken away, sold off to developers and either demolished or repurposed. The world has moved on and isn’t ever coming back. It’s a giant pit of money.
People have loads of culture. Netflix, Amazon, cheap DVDs, the local multiplex, Spotify. Theatres sell out when Les Miserables comes to town. Covent Garden sells out if it puts on La Boheme. There’s bands in pubs, am drams in theatres. There’s a few popular galleries and museums that people want to go to, and in general, people should pay to go. The rest is culture wank.
Sometimes you take things too far, Western Bloke. Our government is laser focussed on the essentials.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-15613413/Cha-cha-cha-ing-Middle-East-burns-theyre-getting-pay-rise-Fury-MPs-DANCE-Parliament-Iran-crisis-leaves-Britain-brink-World-War-Three.html
Yeah, we should slash MPs’ pay so that only the rich and the back-handed can afford elected public office.
“Angela Rippon said dance was ‘such a valuable tool in getting the nation healthy’ and saving the NHS money.
She said dance could help cure medical conditions and tackle the obesity and mental health crises.”
So if you find yourself having a coronary, the recommended treatment is half a dozen rounds of the highland fling.
A friend of mine said she was responsible for Lisa Nandy. She had introduced Lisa’s mother’s boyfriend to another girl whom he went on to marry. So Lisa’s Mum went on to marry Nandy and there you are.
Golly, said I, that’s a terrible burden of responsibility. She agreed: “especially if she ever becomes PM”.
What I can’t work out is, do they do that because:
A combination of all of the above, and none. They’re doing what interests them, but pretending they’re doing something else. They’re also trying to implement their ideologies: the implementation fails and backfires almost immediately (if it even gets that far) so they have to pretend it was for something else.
Potholes? They all hate cars. It costs money. There are many, many other ways to spend that money on preferred demographics, or because statutorily they have to.
They get bored of doing what they are supposed to.
The people doing the crap give them money.
Then they’ll complain when no one is using the ‘green or blue spaces’ and blame it on white supremecy.
Whereas it turns out daniggasanwogs really don’t like nature, don’t give a fuck, and prefer to sprawl scrolling on sofas, eating Mickey D’s and Deliveroos. Wiv da telly on.
“If you build it, they will come.”
15 minutes walk? Bloody hell. I’ve moved to a regional town, around 60,000 people, and being in what is now the commercial centre (residential, big box outlets and the like) nature is 5kms away. About an hour walk each way for me, although I’ll slow down soon I’m sure. There are some parks but I don’t count that as nature. If we want to go sit by the Murray River we drive there (beautiful, BTW). How you would do it in a densely populated area I have no idea.