If you live a short walk from nature, it’s an easy thing to take for granted. It’s when you have little or no access to green space that you really appreciate all its benefits – like how it keeps the air clean, improves your physical health and reduces stress. Here at Time Out, we know that green spaces are an essential part of any good city, which is why we recently created a list of the best cities around the world for access to nature. Now, a new project has been launched to give recognition to the UK towns and cities trying to make their public green spaces even better.
And thanks to its 25-year City of Nature plan and its ‘ambitious and inclusive approach to embedding nature into everyday life’ Birmingham has become the UK’s first official Nature City.
The Nature Towns and Cities programme was founded by Natural England, National Trust and The National Lottery Heritage Fund. By 2035, its mission is to give five million more people with access to nature a short walk from home and have at least 100 UK towns and cities ‘transforming their places and communities through nature’. Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole were all named the UK’s first official Nature Towns.
Birmingham council’s 25-year plan, which was approved in 2022, lays out a framework for boosting its publicly accessible green spaces from 600 to 1,000 through restoration projects and collaboration with local communities and environmental organisations.
Majid Mahmood, the cabinet member for environment and transport, said: ‘Through our 25-year City of Nature Plan, we’ve laid out a robust framework for transforming how nature is valued and integrated across Birmingham. We’re really leading the way in creating and recovering urban nature and are one of the greenest cities in Europe.
‘We work with community groups like Birmingham Tree People to plant trees in inner city areas such as Alum Rock, and in partnership with the National Trust, we’ve developed pocket parks across neighbourhoods. These are small but impactful green spaces that bring nature to people’s doorsteps while supporting wellbeing, biodiversity, and community pride.’
Beyond the Nature City and Nature Town titles, the project has granted funding tp 40 other places in the UK to help them improve access to nature. They include Bradford, Blackpool, Portsmouth and Norwich in England, Neath in Wales, Fife in Scotland and Belfast in Northern Ireland.
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