- published: 08 Jun 2013
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A country park is an area designated for people to visit and enjoy recreation in a countryside environment.
In the United Kingdom the term 'Country Park' has a special meaning. There are over 400 Country Parks in England alone. Most Country Parks were designated in the 1970s, under the Countryside Act 1968 with the support of the former Countryside Commission. In more recent times there has been no specific financial support for country parks directly, and fewer have been designated. Most are managed by local authorities, although other organisations and private individuals can also run them. There is nothing to stop anyone opening a site and calling it a Country Park, although they might not receive recognition from the Countryside Agency. Indeed there are quite a few such parks in existence, some of which are very far from what one might normally expect a country park to be.
The purpose of a country park is to provide a place that has a natural, rural atmosphere for visitors who do not necessarily want to go out into the wider countryside. Visitors can enjoy a public open space with an informal atmosphere, as opposed to a formal park as might be found in an urban area. For this reason country parks are usually found close to or on the edge of built-up areas, and rarely in the wider countryside.