CA-WN 18 July Meeting Report
Our guest speaker for July was Dr Declan Ryan, Associate Professor in Physical Activity & Health at the University of Northampton, who gave a presentation about Northampton's Active Quarter.
The meeting was recorded and is available on the CA-WN YouTube channel1 and Declan’s presentation slides are available to download2.
Present: Alexina Cassidy, Clare Robertson-Marriot, Emmie Williamson, Gordon Smallman, Harry Mellor, Jane Wood, Jean Troy, Jeremy Wagstaff, Orianne Neyroud, Patsy Hollingum, Richard Hollingum, Roy Hawkesford, Sari Sudersono, Tim Cook
Apologies: Briony Askew, Clare Slater, Ella Mansfield, Leonie Beale, Maria Lee, Rupert Knowles
Background
Declan joined the sport and exercise science team at the University of Northampton in January 2019. A lot of their work is to do with physical activity and public health, working with organisations including local authorities, especially their Public Health team to promote health and physical activity among residents.
A Public Health England report in 2020 gave a range of recommendations to improve access to green space. It’s important to prioritise access to green space especially in more deprived communities as there is a real disparity in access between deprived and more affluent neighbourhoods.
The World Health Organisation (WHO) has done several reports on the importance of green spaces – in particular a report in 20173 made recommendations which helped to shape early partnership working in Northampton, including:
- Consider urban green space as part of urban planning, linking in to highways and active travel
- When implementing interventions to improve use of public green space, the most effective approach is to utilise both physical and social changes e.g. put in new paths or signs combined with group or volunteering activities to get people involved
- There is a sense of public ownership over local green spaces. So it’s important to ensure local communities are involved in designing and planning changes. Parks are one of very few free public spaces.
- Urban green spaces are most sustainable when they are supported by a range of stakeholders.
Overview of the Active Quarter (AQ)
The University of Northampton (UoN) is co-located in the town centre. Around that area is a patchwork of green spaces managed by various bodies.
Lots of organisations are involved in the Active Quarter partnership including UoN, WNC, Brackmills BID, Delapre Estate, Nene Rivers Trust and Trilogy Leisure. There are plans to include the Wildlife Trust too. Their common goal is promoting health and well-being among local communities.
An audit of green spaces in the area identified that 90% is owned by the council, so needed a seal of approval from them for the fairly informal partnership around the AQ. A paper went to WNC Cabinet in 2023, it was approved and the AQ has had good support since from WNC councillors on both sides.
The Public Health and WHO guidance gave a clear steer on who to engage with, and the NHS also has an inequality strategy (Core20PLUS5) which requires engagement with the top 20 most deprived communities in the area and also those experiencing additional inequality in relation to access to green spaces. In Northampton that is minority ethnic groups and women and girls.
DR showed a map of the AQ overlaid with areas of deprivation (indices of multiple deprivation). There are some high levels of deprivation on the borders of the AQ, particularly towards the centre of Northampton, where there is also a low level of access to private or shared gardens so public space is particularly important.
The partnership is also considering physical access; have started to map people within a 15 minute walk of green space in line with Natural England guidance, to see what communities those green spaces are serving.
What has the AQ Partnership done so far?
Declan is talking today about the work with Delapre Abbey and Park as it was the first research and evaluation partnership. Other projects have included work with Brackmills Industrial Estate.
The partnership with Delapre first formed in late 2020. Delapre Park is a very diverse landscape with 550 acres of parkland, woods, an historic battlefield site and a lake. There was then no wayfinding or signage so it could be hard to find your way when surrounded by woodland.
Funding was obtained from UoN to undertake a study with the aim of installing signs and creating a linked walking route. The project was a partnership with Delapre Abbey Preservation Trust, WNC and Northants Sport.
The theory behind the project (Theory of Change) is that changes in the physical environment such as signs would make people feel safer and more inclined to spend time in the park, resulting in increased well-being, enhanced physical activity and appreciation of the natural environment.
Signs are intended to make people feel safer as they can be anxious about where they can or can’t go, or about getting lost if they stray too far away from their car or bus stop.
Before putting up signs the team sought community views with an online survey, asking what signs should look like, how acceptable they’d be and what should be on them. There were 266 respondents which was good for a fairly small project. Most people were in favour of signs and the responses reflected some of the expectations of the project team. Overall:
- There was a clear appetite for signs, people felt they would add confidence, encouragement and safety.
- Not all were in favour – some respondents felt signs spoiled the adventure and sense of exploration of a walk
- Signposts should fit the landscape not jar with the natural beauty
- Frequent and infrequent visitors have different needs and the park needs to meet both. Perhaps people visit less often because the park doesn’t meet their needs.
How does green space make us feel better?
Attention Restoration Theory – people visit green spaces to restore their brains after a lot of attentional fatigue. This was especially important during lockdowns when people were working at home with less social interaction.
The theory suggests 4 key properties to help with the restorative effect:
- Extent: scope and variety of the green space. There is a richer experience with flowers and trees than just a grassy space.
- Being away from the usual environment
- Soft fascination – aspects of the environment that effortlessly capture our attention such as birds and flowers
- Compatibility i.e. people want to be there
Visitors to parks in Northampton were interviewed. Some of their comments brought out elements of the theory, such as noting the contrast between the park and the nearby urban environment, how visitors could hear the birds and appreciate the beauty of the landscape, and being immersed in the green space.
Designing the signs
Urban street signs would be unfitted to a green space and affect the quality of the experience. The signs installed are on wooden posts and relatively small so not intrusive into the landscape.
People were asked about the information they wanted to see on signs. This included direction, total distance of the route, local information, map of the route and emergency contact information.
Other projects have found that people didn’t like motivational statements – “well done for getting this far” etc. People are trying to relax rather than challenge themselves.
Monitoring use
Baseline monitoring of footpath usage was done from May-August 2021. Installed signs September 2021, with the walking route officially opened August 2021. A range of techniques were employed to track use of the route:
- Manual counting and observation of what people were doing by the study team.
- Automated observations, with infrared counters monitoring footfall continuously.
- Online intercept surveys – people were asked to do a survey after a walk using a QR code.
After 12 months the data was analysed. There was no change in footfall. This was not surprising as other research has shown that change is typically only seen after 2-3 years. But there were positive observations showing people were following the signs, and useful comments from the surveys saying that people appreciated having the signs to guide them, especially for infrequent visitors.
A lot of the change theory hypotheses were confirmed. Unintended consequences were noted too, so these could be mitigated against.
Key learnings:
- The need to distinguish between frequent and infrequent visitors as they have different needs.
- Displaying the distance of the walk helps people decide if they can complete it.
- Providing information about footpath surfaces is important especially for people with limited mobility or with pushchairs.
- Co-production with the local community is important.
The need for more seats in parks was a recurring theme. Not enough seats discourages people from visiting especially if they have limited mobility or health issues.
Social Prescription
Another piece of work, funded by the Department for Transport, was about walking and cycling as social prescription. A lot of people go to their GP with health and wellbeing concerns that could be treated with social actions such as taking part in groups or using open spaces. The Department for Transport was interested in whether cycling and walking would fit in as an option for social prescribing.
The project team created a survey and did some observations within Delapre Park asking people questions, including what they thought of the quality of the footpaths. This highlighted issues with wheelchair access and difficulty pushing buggies, therefore there is a need for solid surfaces. Even people who said the paths were good quality also said wellies and walking boots were needed in the winter.
Based on that public engagement research WNC made a successful funding application to Active Travel England for c£650k to install more accessible footpaths and permanent wayfinding, which will replace the project’s temporary signs. There will also be more seating to address that concern.
The upgraded footpaths within Delapre Park connect to a number of existing footpaths, helping to connect up multiple green spaces eg Brackmills, the town centre, the mountain bike park.
The benefits of the upgraded footpaths are starting to be seen, for example people now using adapted cycles to explore the park. This ties in with the original aims of the project, which identified people with disabilities as being a group less likely to access green space.
The project demonstrated the benefits of engaging with communities to capture and record their wants and needs. This information can then be used to make the case for projects and secure funding. The partnership is looking to build on this approach in the county more widely.
Next steps
- Evaluation of the new footpaths in early 2025, with more community engagement asking for feedback on the new paths and monitoring use.
- Visiting community events to raise awareness for the AQ partnership and find out more about what people want, need and appreciate from local parks.
- WNC Parks Strategy consultation4 has been launched – please engage with that, it’s important that the strategy reflects the voice and values of the community. The consultation may also include some stakeholder workshops.
- Continuing to grow the partnership.
- Develop monitoring protocols to record visits to green spaces and events within them to see if events bring in new people.
- Co-produce a vison for the AQ with local communities.
- Share insights with other groups and the council (aiming to align with the recommendations of Natural England’s Green Infrastructure Framework).
More information
An AQ website5 has recently been launched with lots of information about all the projects.
UoN also has an open online repository6 where all reports and datasets are available.DR is happy to be contacted with any questions (Declan.Ryan@northampton.ac.uk).
Q&A
What is the surface of the new paths?
DR hasn’t been directly involved with this but it looks like tarmac. It needs to be resilient as there is quite frequent flooding so something like loose stone would just get washed away.
How will you encourage ‘groups’ to use it, e.g. older men - who often don’t socialise in the way that women do?
Worth looking at the Delapre wellbeing hub7. A group called Space 2 Talk operates from there and hosts group walks and events targeted at men. There are also walks for other groups e.g. Macmillan Cancer walks. The hub worked with local communities to develop its activities to make sure it is offering what people want.
Does the project have any Active Travel aims (as opposed to Leisure aims)?
Yes, the survey for the social prescription project found people travelling in from Far Cotton and Hardingstone for work. As part of the evaluation the project will be looking at whether people are using the paths for active travel purposes as well as for leisure.
The town centre is quite grey and there are some very deprived areas further north in the Mounts and the Eastern district. Looking at the planning they seem quite green but the paths are overgrown so more of a deterrent rather than encouragement to walk. Do you have plans to expand e.g. connecting to the racecourse across the town centre? There are huge opportunities within Northampton e.g. to connect up pocket parks.
Engaging with people within those deprived areas would be useful to get them to think about active travel.
The draft Parks Strategy includes consideration of the town centre as a park, for example the potential development of the Greyfriars site as a linear park. There’s also an important piece about creating green corridors to connect up different parks which will be an area of focus for the partnership going forward.
In addition some of the town parks (Abington Park, The Racecourse) are starting to think about what they can offer in terms of well-being.
So yes there are plans to expand and share learning as much as possible. The Northampton LCWIP needs to give consideration to those green corridors as well.
Engagement with minority ethnic communities is important to understand what are the barriers for them. Research done nationally has shown that use of green spaces tends to link to societal issues such as structural racism. A project run by Dr Marcella Day (Step Together) has been looking at this issue.
What specifically have you been able to do to encourage women and girls to use active spaces more?
This is something they need to do more work on in the future, it links into multiple strategies for example in relation to policing and violence against women and girls.
Northampton is alleged to have extremely poor air quality. Have you done any air quality measurements in the Active Quarter to inform people hoping to get outdoors to benefit from breathing ‘cleaner’ air?
The partnership hasn’t done that yet (still in early stages!). One of the Air Quality Management areas is on Victoria Promenade right next to Becketts Park – potentially there is an opportunity to look at AQ in the future.
Understandably, the focus is on Northampton, but there are issues in rural areas where footpaths are limited.
Yes – do recognise issues in rural areas e.g. with connectivity and accessibility of public footpaths. Hope that learning and partnership working approach will inspire others who manage parks and spaces in rural communities to undertake their own schemes.
Date of next Meeting
Thursday 12 September, the speaker will be Tim O’Callaghan from Electric Places/Electric Corby, an organisation involved in renewable energy projects in the north of the county, and which also offers kit for people to borrow such as a gadget for the car that simulates how the journey would be in an electric car.
Other events
Saturday 20 July - Informal social on Saturday afternoon at the museum from 2 till 4.
Friday 2 August - We have arranged a tour of Syan Farms and Eat Curious, a vertical farm and vegan food producer based in Horton. Limited tickets (free) bookable through Eventbrite.
Thursday 19 September - CA-WN is co-hosting a screening of Six Inches of Soil at the Arc Cinema Daventry. This is a film about regenerative farming and will be followed by a Q&A panel with experts including Dr Lucy Michaels from the film production team.
Wednesday 9 October - Climate summit for parish councillors and clerks at Delapre Abbey.
Details of all events including booking where appropriate on the CA-WN Exchange What’s On page.
References
1. https://youtu.be/cQ7L1HpVHHA
2. https://ca-wn.org/MemberDocs/18_July_2024_Declan_Ryan.pdf
3. WHO report: Urban green spaces: a brief for action https://www.who.int/europe/publications/i/item/9789289052498
4. https://westnorthants.citizenspace.com/place/draft-wn-parks-development-strategy/ Consultation closes 8 September.