Manchester has finished in the bottom ten when it comes to the Greenest city centres in Great Britain.
Researchers analysed 68 city centres across England, Scotland and Wales ranking them on tree cover, vegetation and parks in the heart of the city centres
The top five greenest city centres are all in the South of England (Exeter, Islington, Bristol, Bournemouth Cambridge)
Meanwhile, Glasgow was ranked the least green city centre according to the study’s criteria, with Middlesbrough, Sheffield, Liverpool, and Leeds, making up the bottom five.
The findings, published in PLOS ONE, reveal a clear divide between the city centres with the most green attributes all located in the South of England, whilst the lowest scoring cities are ex-industrial areas in the North of Great Britain.
While numerous prior studies have measured greenness of whole cities, including broader suburban areas, this is the first to focus specifically on the heart of city centres, where people tend to spend much of their time on activities such as work, recreation, and shopping.
Trees, vegetation cover, and public greenspaces, including parks and sports fields, have been shown to have positive impacts on biodiversity and human health.
Dr Paul Brindley, Senior Author of the study from the University of Sheffield’s Department of Landscape Architecture, said: “By 2050 nearly 70 per cent of the world’s population are projected to be living in towns and cities. Green spaces have been proven time and again to boost people’s wellbeing and are essential to biodiversity, but nobody has ever looked at how green our city centres are, despite the amount of time individuals spend in them on a daily basis.
“The fact that all five of the greenest city centres are in the South of England, whilst the five city centres with the least green attributes are in the North of Great Britain, clearly highlights the need to urgently improve the greenness of city centres at the bottom of the list, and to ensure that action is taken by local authorities to close the gap.”
