His work transformed the fortunes of Britain's public parks and green spaces
Alan Barber, who has died of cancer aged 68, was Britain's pre-eminent campaigner and advocate for public parks, a passionate believer in the positive effects of green spaces on society.
But he was also a gifted strategic thinker and a firm believer in research, arguing that if just 1% of parks spending was allocated to research, it would enable the better expenditure of the other 99%. He was fond of saying that the only reliable statistic we had on park use was that "the Garden of Eden contained two people". He was also fervent in his wish to see a national agency dedicated to public parks, and through his tenacity, significant progress was made in both these areas.
In 2001 the newly created Urban Green Spaces taskforce commissioned the largest survey of park use ever undertaken, and in 2003 CABE Space (part of the Commission for Architecture and the Built Environment) was established. Alan worked there as a commissioner until ill-health forced him to resign in 2008.
Alan was brought up in Southport, Merseyside, where he went to the King George V grammar school and his father, Harold, served as mayor. He began as a gardening apprentice with Southport council, later going on to study horticulture at the Royal Botanic Gardens in Kew. He then worked in the parks department at Bristol council, becoming its director before leaving in 1992 to pursue a career as an independent consultant.
I first met Alan in early 1993 when Liz Greenhalgh and I were establishing a research project which culminated in the report Park Life: Urban Parks and Social Renewal (1995), for which Alan wrote the first working paper, Law, Money and Management, a model of policy analysis and prescription.
Yet there was one matter on which Alan was badly wrong. He knew the National Lottery was coming, but assumed that entrenched heritage interests would continue to favour country houses and old masters over municipal parks. In late 1995, however, Alan, Liz and I were summoned by Lord Rothschild, chairman of the National Heritage Memorial Fund, to London and asked to draft the guidelines for a dedicated parks lottery programme. Rothschild explained that he was looking for a project that would touch the lives of millions, and had read the 1993 report by Hazel Conway and David Lambert, Public Prospects: Historic Urban Parks Under Threat, as well as the Park Life study, which estimated that 8 million people in Britain used parks daily – a statistic that impressed him greatly.
By then a senior figure at the Institute of Leisure and Amenity Management, Alan lobbied the Heritage Lottery Fund's buildings and land panel, and in January 1996 the fund's urban parks programme was established. Since then, £525m has been awarded to more than 500 park projects in the UK, a vindication of Alan's years of determined work.
His growing reputation led him – along with Lambert – to advise the select committee on town and country parks, in 1999, and he became a member of the government's Urban Green Spaces taskforce in 2001. On that committee, he quickly swayed ministers and their advisers with the sheer depth of his knowledge. Forthright in his opinions, he could also charm the birds from the trees.
On one occasion a team of Home Office civil servants gave evidence to the taskforce, setting out their vision of public space – ideally a domain in which children and young people were kept indoors. Alan sent them packing. He believed childhood to be a state of grace which found its natural home in well-managed parks, streets and public spaces. In his last years, friends were fed a regular supply of photographs of himself in a wheelchair, accompanied by various grandchildren visiting parks around the country.
The period between the publication of Public Prospects in 1993 and the taskforce report Green Spaces, Better Places in 2002, was a momentous time for public parks. The GMB union was campaigning against the loss of horticultural skills resulting from the introduction of compulsory competitive tendering, while a Pesticides Trust brainwave resulted in the setting up of the immensely successful Green Flag award, which recognises the best green spaces in the country. In addition, the national network Green Space was created to link up and promote such areas. Alan was involved in all of these initiatives. The result was a complete turnaround in the fortunes of Britain's parks, comparable to the achievement of the 1949 National Parks and Access to the Countryside Act. Both endeavours were inspired by a belief that life was more democratic and more enjoyable outdoors, in spaces belonging to everybody.
In later life Alan became Simon research fellow at Manchester University and was awarded an honorary doctorate by Writtle College, Essex University, in 2005. He was appointed OBE in 2009.
He was a devoted family man, marrying Jan Alton in 1965 and becoming father to two daughters, Vanessa and Fiona. From 1971 the family lived at Nailsea, near Bristol. Alan possessed an extensive hinterland, owning and repairing a succession of Ford Capri coupes, listening to the music of Stan Kenton, and avidly reading hard-boiled thrillers. The Alan Barber rose garden in Ashton Court Park, Bristol – which he helped design – was dedicated in 2008, and his memorial service was held there. He is survived by his wife, daughters and five grandchildren.
• Alan Vincent Heys Barber, green-spaces consultant, born 11 June 1942; died 16 February 2011