The local government funding crisis has become so dire that councils are being forced to sell thousands of public spaces – from libraries and community centres to playgrounds – and are using some of the cash to pay for further service cuts and redundancy payments.
In a major collaborative investigation with HuffPost UK and regional journalists across the country, the Bureau of Investigative Journalism has compiled data on more than 12,000 public spaces disposed of by councils since 2014/15.
See what your council has sold.
Enter your postcode into this interactive map, and scroll down to see the results.
This investigation has found:
One in six councils in England have used a total of £381million from sales of buildings and land to pay for cost cutting since April 2016
Almost a third of that – £115million – was spent on pay-offs to make people redundant
It lays bare the spiralling impact of eight successive years of austerity, leaving services shut and buildings closed.
Read the full story here: The Thousands Of Public Spaces Lost To The Council Funding Crisis
CONCERNED? WHAT CAN YOU DO?
Use this map as evidence: If you’re concerned about the results you can write to your council and your MP to raise the issue.
Or, if you have information about a particular building or space that has been sold off, let us know by contacting news editor basia.cummings@huffpost.com
Safeguard the future: If you know of local buildings or space under threat, you can tell Locality, who coordinate #SaveOurSpaces, and who also advise what communities can do to save public buildings and spaces.