The UK government has no plans to meet its target for everyone to live within a 15-minute walk of a green space, the Guardian can reveal.

Ministers have also scrapped an idea to make the target for access to nature legally binding, a freedom of information request submitted by the Right to Roam campaign shows.

Launching the plans earlier this year, the then-environment secretary, Thérèse Coffey, congratulated herself for the idea: “I am particularly pleased by our pledge in this plan to bring access to a green or blue space within 15 minutes’ walk of everyone’s homes – whether that be through parks, canals, rivers, countryside or coast,” she said.

But in response to a freedom of information request, the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs said: “No assessment has yet gone to ministers on options for how to progress towards the commitment.”

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    Ministers have also scrapped an idea to make the target for access to nature legally binding, a freedom of information request submitted by the Right to Roam campaign shows.

    But in response to a freedom of information request, the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs said: “No assessment has yet gone to ministers on options for how to progress towards the commitment.”

    The documents reveal that the government rejected the idea of making the target legally binding, meaning it does not have to fulfil its promise.

    Guy Shrubsole, from the Right to Roam campaign, said: “A year after making their access commitment, ministers still have no idea how on earth to meet it.

    And having rejected setting a legal target for increasing access, the government is clearly only interested in spinning good headlines rather than improving the nation’s health and wellbeing.

    “Work is ongoing to develop an approach to monitoring and evaluating our vital commitment that every household should be within a 15-minute walk of a green space or water.”


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