Thank you, Rhys, for giving me an opportunity to speak. As a county borough councillor, one of my biggest ongoing fights throughout my political career, as it were, has been to protect and properly maintain community spaces. Members here may laugh, but one of my most treasured moments as a councillor was when a five-year-old girl and her father came up to me and she thanked me for saving her playground. To many people, it may not seem that important, but, to this little girl, that playground was, and I still hope is, a major positive aspect in her life that will contribute to her feeling that her childhood was a happy one.

The problem we have, as I see it, is that Government and local government in particular see our community spaces as opportunities for development rather than psychologically significant geographical spaces, involving complex relationships of meaning, value and social activity that contribute significantly to our community identity, our community cohesion and to our sense of belonging and feeling a part of a community. Public spaces for many contribute to one's self-definition, both individually and collectively. What this means is that people can identify who I am and who we are by locating themselves within their community spaces. Place identity is recognised as a sub-identity in its own right, and this is inherently connected to how we feel and engage with places that we live. By allowing the destruction of community spaces, we're facilitating a loss of community, and, equally as important, a loss of pride in our communities. We must acknowledge that removing or displacing our community spaces has a profoundly negative impact on individuals and communities, and this is why we see, time and time again, communities, groups, and individuals fighting with every available resource that they have to protect them.