A charity campaign to raise vital funds to improve access to Bath’s vital parks and green spaces has signed up its first key business partner.
Your Park Bristol & Bath launched the Reimagining Parks scheme in May following a report that revealed a third of the population across the two cities struggle to access their local park. 
Bristol-based power firm National Grid Electricity Distribution, formerly Western Power Distribution, will provide corporate sponsorship for the campaign while a number of its employees will also support some of the charity’s work on the ground to transform local parks and make them accessible for everyone to enjoy.
These team days provide a chance for staff to connect outdoors and improve their mental health while taking part in a range of nature-based activities, such as planting trees, building pathways and benches to improve accessibility and planting environments to enhance biodiversity and carbon capture.
National Grid Electricity Distribution volunteering & sponsorship coordinator Emily Green said: “The benefits Your Park Bristol & Bath delivers to people’s health through access to nature, as well as boosting biodiversity, are impressive and their mission closely matches National Grid’s priorities.
“Through this partnership we will be able to support this valuable work in several ways. This includes employees taking part in team days doing practical activities to improve parks, and in the process their own wellbeing.
“We look forward to seeing the continued positive impact Your Park Bristol & Bath is having on communities.”
Your Park Bristol & Bath chief executive Charlee Bennett, pictured, described National Grid’s involvement as “a real testament” to the importance of the work its campaign aimed to deliver.
“With National Grid’s support, both financial and hands-on, we can accelerate our efforts to create truly inclusive and accessible green spaces for everyone in Bristol and Bath to benefit from,” she added.
“We hope that many other local organisations will follow suit and join our campaign. The more help and support we have, the more impact we can make.”
According to Your Park Bristol & Bath, the majority of the 580 or so parks and green spaces across the two cities are not inclusively designed, which significantly impacts access to them – in particular, for disabled people and carers, women and girls, minority ethnic groups and people in low-income areas. 
It also says there are three key factors preventing people from having the confidence or ability to get out into their local parks are physical accessibility, personal safety and mental wellbeing.
Its Reimagining Parks campaign aims to lead the change, with the ambition for everyone in Bath and Bristol to have a park that is accessible to them within a 10-minute reach of where they live, work or study.
That means making them physically accessible for disabled people and their carers, designed with the safety and enjoyment of women and girls in mind, and used to support people with mental health issues.
Since the campaign launched, it has raised nearly £14,000 and is aiming for £30,000 over the next year. The partnership with National Grid runs until next spring.
Western Power Distribution became part of the National Grid Group following its £14.2bn acquisition from its US owner PPL Corporation in 2021 and was renamed National Grid Electricity Distribution the following year.
Operating from a base on Feeder Road, Bristol, it is the UK’s largest electricity distribution network, employing more than 6.500 people and delivering power to nearly 8m customers in the South West, East and West Midlands, and Wales.
Pictured below: Staff from National Grid’s Bristol team at Ashton Court, near Bristol, during its first employee volunteering day for Your Park Bristol & Bath
