It's our space
A guide for community groups working to improve public space
The government is keen for community groups to have greater control over how the local environment is managed and improved. It has set out clear agendas on these issues to make open spaces cleaner, safer and greener. Over the past few years, a range of grants and funding programmes have been made available for community groups to become involved in improving outdoor spaces. With the help of the Big Lottery Fund and other funding bodies this looks set to continue. This guide is intended to help community groups to get the best out of their outdoor spaces, and to help maximise the impact of their efforts on the ground. Title: It's our space - A guide for community groups working to improve public space |  |
This guide is applicable to a range of public space projects ranging from minor improvements to refurbishing existing spaces and creating new ones. Public space is the green spaces, parks, streets, civic squares and other outdoor spaces that are freely accessible to the public and usually free of charge. Typically these are:
- parks and public gardens
- natural and semi-natural spaces (including wastelands and derelict open land)
- green corridors
- outdoor sports facilities
- amenity green spaces
- provision for children and young people
- allotments, community gardens and city farms
- cemeteries, churchyards and other burial grounds
- accessible countryside in urban fringe areas
- civic spaces, including civic and market squares and other hard surfaced areas designed for pedestrians.
A public space is continuously changing - planting matures and changes over time and a park in winter will feel very different to one in the summer. The way a place is managed and maintained can have a great impact on how it looks and feels. A well-designed public space will also need to be well-managed.
The Green Flag Award scheme is the national standard for parks and green spaces and its criteria reflect essential factors of a well-maintained space. The aspiration should be to win the award but it is also useful as a checklist for good design and management. Parks and open spaces are judged against the following criteria:
- a welcoming place
- healthy, safe and secure
- clean and well maintained
- sustainability
- conservation and heritage
- community involvement
- marketing
- management
Every public space has different uses and means different things to different people. A well-designed public space meets the needs of all the people using it without favouring one particular group of people. It is flexible enough to meet different needs now and in the future.
A well-designed place has the following qualities:
- sustainability
- character and distinctiveness
- definition and enclosure
- connectivity and accessibility
- legibility
- adaptability and robustness
- inclusiveness
- biodiversity
Many communities want to improve spaces because they have been neglected and suffered problems, such as graffiti and vandalism. Investing in good design and good management will be far more effective in tackling these problems than trying to fortify the existing environment. CABE Space’s report Decent parks? Decent behaviour? The link between the quality of parks and user behaviour provides evidence on how this can be achieved.
Some sites will benefit as much from removal or simplification of features as they will from new elements. It may be that incremental design has changed the site’s original purpose. Issues like safety, dealt with in isolation, may have over-ridden the original design and well-meaning efforts have put up obstacles and barriers to movement. The project may need to consider opening up vistas and sightlines in parks, even if it includes removing some vegetation to restore a previously well-designed public space to its original design and make people want to use it again.
The 4 keys stages of a project
There are four key stages to a public space project: prepare, design, construct and use. Although use focuses on management and maintenance, it is important to consider this at the start of the project to make a space that will be well cared for. Be prepared for the long haul. Projects can take significant time to complete - from one year to five years or more. If this sounds daunting, the examples in this guide show how satisfaction in the process and product far outweighs the time taken and the hard work of the people involved.
This guide outlines typical stages in a project but every project is different. A client will need to seek professional advice as necessary to develop their individual project. Dip into this guide for an overview of a client’s main roles and responsibilities at each stage. There are key questions at the end of each section to prompt your thoughts at each stage of the project. There are also case studies to learn from containing both positive and negative lessons.
The guide gives some quite detailed practical considerations for each of the 4 stages. Below is a checklist of each step of your project. Please see the full document for the detailed guidance.
Checklist
The following checklist outlines the key stages of a project.
Tick off each stage as they are completed:
- Prepare
- Establish the client team and roles
- Establish a partnership
- Identify, consult and involve people
- Understand the site
- Secure funding
- Appoint the design consultant
- Develop a vision for the site
- Develop the brief
- Design
- The sketch scheme proposal
- The detailed proposal
- The tender documents
- Construct
- Appoint the construction contractor
- Use the construction process as a learning opportunity
- Start work on site
- Use
- Celebrate the opening
- Final completion
- Establish management and maintenance
- Evaluate the project
- Keep the momentum going
Getting a copy
Download It's our space - A guide for community groups working to improve public space 
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Last update: Tuesday, February 27, 2007