Public Access to Green Spaces and Wellbeing

Not all green space is the same, and not everyone has equal access to it.

There is a body of research so consistent, so large, and so unambiguous that it ought to be driving major policy decisions. Access to green space improves mental health. It reduces anxiety and depression, measurably and significantly. It shortens recovery times after illness. It lowers cortisol levels. It encourages physical activity. It strengthens social bonds when it is well-designed and genuinely welcoming. The mechanism is complex — involving reduced sensory overload, contact with non-human life, physical movement, and the social dimension of shared outdoor spaces — but the effect is real and well-documented.

And yet the distribution of access to quality green space is profoundly unequal.

In Huntly, as in most towns, the people who benefit most from green space are the people who already live close to it, who have private gardens to supplement what's publicly available, and who feel comfortable using public outdoor spaces. Residents in areas of higher deprivation, residents with limited mobility, residents who feel unwelcome in spaces that aren't clearly for them — these are the people the research consistently shows would benefit most, and the people most likely to be underserved.

This matters beyond the individual level. Green space, when it is ecologically healthy and well-connected, delivers services to the whole town regardless of who uses it: flood regulation, air quality, temperature regulation, carbon storage. But the wellbeing benefits — the thing that makes green space meaningful to individual lives — depend on people actually using it. And use depends on access. Not just physical proximity, but a felt sense of welcome, ownership, and relevance.

Greener Huntly exists, in part, because of this gap. The community told us, across two separate consultations, that they valued Huntly's green spaces but did not always feel empowered to shape or influence them. People didn't feel confident that their input would be heard. Some didn't feel the spaces were managed in ways that reflected what they actually wanted from them.

Agency matters here as much as access. Research consistently shows that the wellbeing benefits of green space are stronger when people have a role in its management and design — when they feel a sense of ownership rather than just proximity. A park you helped plant is a different thing from one that appeared while you weren't paying attention. The investment of effort creates a relationship.

This is why our community liaisons work publicly and visibly in Huntly's greenspaces. It is why our governance gives members a genuine vote on priorities. It is why we treat community consultation not as a step in a process but as the foundation of everything we do.

Access to green space is not a luxury issue. It is a health issue, an equity issue, and increasingly, as climate change intensifies and the health system faces greater demand, a political and economic one. Huntly has the green space. The question is who it's for — and the answer should be everyone.