Town planners are being reminded today that green spaces in urban areas are not created just by professional designers but also by ordinary residents and by the variety of plants, insects, animals and birds that make a home in cities and towns. The message is contained in new research sponsored by the Economic and Social Research Council.The study, led by Oxford Professor Sarah Whatmore and Dr Steve Hinchliffe at the Open University, says that what makes urban green spaces green is that they are ‘living’ and this fact, more-than-human interactivity, is key to understanding what makes cities habitable. The researchers say that over the past decade, the ecology of Britain’s urban areas has gained the kind of conservation significance once only found in rural and sparsely populated regions. Scientists, they believe, now recognise that cities sustain important communities of plants and animals and that urban wildlife groups, amateur naturalists and voluntary organisations have played an important part in bringing about this change.

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The voluntary and community sector is to get more money to help it carry out vital work in reusing, recycling and composting waste. Most of the four million pounds funding from the Department for the Environment Food and Agriculture will be used to help organisations develop partnerships with local authorities and share their expertise.DEFRA says many services that are now widespread, such as kerbside collection of material for recycling, were pioneered by the community sector. It is also involved in projects including the collection of unwanted furniture for distribution to low income families and community composting schemes.

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By Ian Quanstrom In January 2005 the inner workings of public bodies will be open to public gaze: lobby groups, media, campaigners and dissatisfied customers, will be able to scrutinise thinking leading up to a decision. In most organizations the warning has gone out that staff must assume that every e-mail they write will be disclosable. The author looks at the challenge of changing the mindset from one of non-disclosure to total transparency as the masses track what civil servants, council officials and others are doing on their behalf.