Create urban green space within 300m of our homes, says Government agency

Government agency Natural England has challenged local authorities, planners and developers to increase the amount of green areas available on people's doorsteps.

Sir Martin Doughty, Chair of Natural England. said: 'Wherever you live in England you should be able to access 'green space' whether it is a local park, a wildlife garden or even an area of woodland close to where you live.'

Natural England will promote a series of standards to ensure that people, wherever they live, can relax, play, exercise or just escape in their neighbourhood green space.

Sir Martin continued: 'These are standards that we all – including national and local government, planners and developers – should aspire to for new developments and when redeveloping and regenerating existing sites.

'Entire generations who grew up in the 80s and 90s became increasingly separated from the natural environment. Natural England wants to reverse this trend particularly for new generations. The success of these standards would ensure that care and concern for the environment is passed onto the next generation, safeguarding it for the future,' concluded Sir Martin.

Natural England is funding a number of pilot projects, in partnership with a wide range of environmental and community organisations (primarily in London) to demonstrate what can be achieved when local communities are supported with a little expertise to get projects started and with relatively small sums of money.