Public Space
Public spaces, squares and plazas in our towns and cities can be the heart of a place – providing places to relax and meet friends, but also for cultural gatherings, protests and meetings.
Well managed public spaces can support local businesses by attracting customers and providing a nice environment for staff. These spaces, while not formal parks, can also create environmental benefits through the use of plants, trees and water features.
Community led approaches to public space vary from the informal – the greening carried out by Guerilla Gardeners, or the edible planting of the Incredible Edible movement, through to protests and occupations of increasingly privatised “public” space, to community-led trusts and social enterprises managing market squares. The newly created green public spaces on new housing developments also have a very important function, and can be managed by the community of people living around them. Community organisations can often see the potential for new public space in what others might consider unpromising “brownfield” land – disused railway lines or sidings, canalside sites and even flyovers.
Shared Assets has worked with Kirklees Council looking at options for community control of this housing green space, and with Jericho Wharf Trust as they develop a potential management and governance model for a new public space in Oxford. We’ve also been reviewing the different ways in which markets can play a role in sustaining public space, and have supported Somers Town Community Association to develop a community economic development plan which had a market at its heart.
We are interested in developing this strand of work and would be keen to hear from developers, housing associations, landowners or community organisations wanting to create really functional, enterprising and sustainable public space.
Scroll down to the posts below to read some of our latest work on public space projects across the country.
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Friends of the Flyover
Three friends in Liverpool are developing their campaign to transform a heaving flyover that is facing demolition into a green centrepiece and urban park for the city.
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Jericho Wharf Trust
For over ten years, the community of Jericho have been fighting to protect and develop a canalside public square. Through their story, we learn how resistance campaigns can use the planning system and work with developers and local authorities to achieve their aims.
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