Parks are used in many ways...not only with balls

Colours of the park

A local community book club came to a Saori workshop in the studio on Saturday. One of the new weavers created a textile which reminded me of the richness of open space and how we are so influenced by our environment.
According to many sources open parkland and parkland with facilities contribute to land values in an area, especially if it is an unvandalised and peaceful park environment like Badgers parks and indeed all the "pocket parks" of Old Bar that are proposed for disposal to private sale.

Our Open space in Badgers Park

Old Bar is a walking place and proximity is important. We tend to take advantage of close parks rather than getting in cars to travel to another with more structured facilities.

Badgers Park walk leads to Badgers Beach

Page 46 of the Draft Open Space Improvement Plan maps the proposed improvements which will be paid for by the permanent sale of our parks. Although these improvements to other parks are relevant they are not any that I would value in any way until they can be funded by other means.  If they can't be done without selling off our parklands they will have to wait until better times.
The biggest outlays of these proposed improvements  are connected with organised sports in the active sports field (1.2 million). When sports are being played on these fields it isn't appropriate to walk through or picnic on the grounds and sometimes temporary fencing is erected and residents have to pay for entry. These sports groups monopolise these grounds and we generally accept this, but not if all our other parks are sold down to only this type of use.