Last week was “Love Parks Week” in Oxford. Does OCC love Bertie Park?
Oxford’s green spaces have many functions: environmental, economic, health and wellbeing etc. In 2022 Oxford City Council carried out a study of its Green Infrastructure (here). This picked out Bertie Park as special. Even though small, it is “multi-functional.” Bertie is estimated to have an annual welfare benefit of up to £250k which means e.g. avoided health costs. This makes sense. Bertie Park was established 80 years ago when Oxford City Council realised that “it is cheaper to keep a well-developed and healthy community fit, than to cure the sickly inhabitants of congested areas by expensive hospital treatment.”
Today there is just not enough space for more parks. OCC want instead to focus on improving what we have. But they are dead-set on down-grading Bertie Park. Meanwhile, OCC have once again delayed their decision on whether they can go ahead and appropriate the land on Bertie Park. The chart shows all the meetings where Bertie Park was supposed to be on the agenda, then dropped:
Save Bertie Park Oxford 