UK's cash-starved parks at tipping point of decline, MPs warn

Slashed budgets risk the nation's 27,000 parks becoming no-go areas, with negative effects on park-goers' health and the environment

The UK's cash-starved parks are at a tipping point of decline, MPs have warned, with severe impacts expected for park-goers' health, community cohesion and the environment.

The nation's 27,000 parks are highly valued by their 37 million regular users, but funding has plummeted in recent years as local authority budgets have been slashed. An inquiry by a cross-party committee of MPs found that the huge benefits that flow from green spaces are now at the point of being lost.