Wellbeing from Greenspace a Community Planning Toolkit

Resilient Green Infrastructure within the Neighbourhood Planning / Localism Agenda

•Responding to… •Need for resilience in community based initiatives •Realizing the untapped resource around us- our green infrastructure Valuing and re-visioning the ‘Everywhere Landscape’ The issue to address • Much of Greenspace viewed as Non performative, of minimal benefit to its community and expensive to maintain = result: …at best- under used, at worst- increasingly sold off piecemeal for development The solution • ‘Resilient Green Infrastructure’ (RGI) We should expect our local greenspaces to make us… – Healthier – Wealthier – More resilient to deliver… – Wellbeing- joy! – Diversity of experience – we still need ‘the wild’ By becoming… more relevant to peoples needs & managed by the people that use them

Resilient Green Infrastructure - is here! Happening in a neighbourhood near you…

• Wealthier/ more resilient - (Carbon Trust UK / Stevens Croft Wood Burning Plant, United Kingdom / French rural biomass- Cordiale / WREN (Wadebridge Renewable Energy Network ) Resilient Green Infrastructure is here! Happening in a neighbourhood near you…

• Wellbeing/ more resilient- ("Wellbeing Facilitator" Stennack Surgery, utilising green gym volunteering in community space / Play 4 Life RCHT / Resilient Green Infrastructure is here! Happening in a neighbourhood near you…

• Healthier/ more resilient – (CSA projects-Rust-belt USA) / ‘Landshare’ & emergent UK allotment movement / Chyan Community Field) Resilient Green Infrastructure is here! Happening in a neighbourhood near you…

• More diverse – we need ‘the wild’(Cornwall Wildlife Trust -55 nature reserves over 2000 hectares), Cross-cutting agendas around Wellbeing achieved through RGI

• A triple bottom line approach to achieving personal and societal wellbeing through ongoing community action…

• a balance of : – Economic – Environmental – Social …issues must be addressed to create a resilient & sustainable model RGI Activity Delivering Wellbeing

• Local Food & Health / Combating food poverty • Local fuel and economic resilience • Local water conservation and quality • Local environmental conservation and management for human wellbeing & wildlife conservation • Resilient + Sustainable short supply chains and circular (rather than open ended) input /output systems • Skills training & education to resource resilient, intergenerational, socially mobile people networks • Inter-sectoral working: public, private, voluntary sectors to build in resilience • Local Strategic Partnerships joint working benefits: Health, Economy, Environment Multi-sectoral partners / beneficiaries must be involved in RGI Private Sector Potential for injecting project resilience

• Commercial companies pump priming capital and capacity to adapt in support from ‘little-on-up’… • Local landowners becoming partners in wider community based initiatives for mutual benefit • Privately owned unused land becoming available for community use through ‘Landshare’ & similar initiatives • Logistics & Transport expertise and capacity • Marketing expertise and markets • Innovation & diversification potential • Local employment potential • Potential partners in multi-sectoral resource funding bids Multi-sectoral partners / beneficiaries must be involved in RGI Public & Voluntary Sector Support

Guiding the strategic vision, Resilience delivered through service commissioning, Access to strategic funding resources: • Community Health Agenda • Local Education, Skills & Training Agenda • Local Economic Growth and Support • Local Environmental Protection & Development Planning • Capitalising local projects through service commissioning delivered by greenspace: education & training, direct health & wellbeing services through Green Prescription / Green Gym RGI strategies must be designed & managed by communities themselves

• Top down working will not develop ownership and long term buy-in amongst the community • Although multi-sectoral partners / beneficiaries must be involved to deliver resilience, the management must be from and by local stakeholder communities • There must be demonstrable, measurable benefits to guarantee increased and sustained buy-in and support • There must be accountable inclusive, democratic management to guarantee increased and sustained buy-in and support • …so what might the delivery vehicle be? Localism, Resilience & Wellbeing • Neighbourhood Planning should be about delivering a new vision for peoples relationship with their environment and each other…

• The project proposed supports the aspirations of the Localism Bill, with a vision for more independent planning & management of local resources by communities for their collective benefits

• Planning for Wellbeing should be integral to the NP Planning agenda

• The Wellbeing from Greenspace Community Planning Toolkit methodology described below aims to support balanced Neighbourhood Planning objectives: Wellbeing from Greenspace Community Planning Toolkit

Methodology: 1- Mapping Greenspace Resource

map the possibilities… both the obvious and the hidden green infrastructure around us:

public space- parks and gardens in-between greenspace – road, rail & path verges & street corner greenspace institutional greenspace- school grounds, education & healthcare campuses commercial private greenspace- business & retail parks, industrial estates, shelter belts private space- private gardens & estates woodland & hedgerows- in farmland and within townscape wetlands & watercourses- streams, ponds, foreshore underused agricultural land- awkward, steep and ‘uneconomically small’ land parcels wilderness- moorland & marshland, coast & cliff Derelict & Despoiled land- mining and post-industrial land Wellbeing from Greenspace Community Planning Toolkit

Methodology: 2- Analysing Greenspace Potential

each space is analysed for potential uses relating to key site properties & their appropriateness for different functions, e.g.:

size of space physical characteristics e.g.: landform, aspect , drainage, soil, vegetation proximity to public access routes current land use / uses value to local community ecological value ownership neighbouring land uses

Toolkit produces options and priorities depending on site qualities

Wellbeing from Greenspace Community Planning Toolkit

Methodology: 3- Learning & Planning: Support from Best Practice Examples possible strategies for RGI activity within each space and across the range of spaces identified within project area are rigorously explored & tested with reference to similar case study examples identified elsewhere Support and learning provided through:

Toolkit Hub online database Toolkit online networking site Toolkit project partner mentoring Case study project team contact (site visits / exchanges or teleconferences)

Wellbeing from Greenspace Community Planning Toolkit Methodology: 4- Needs/ Benefits Analysis based on its evaluation for potential use, each space is analysed for its potential opportunities & benefits to the community: economic, educational, environmental, social & prioritised against the needs of the community e.g.: - Local food production, marketing and distribution through community supported agriculture and Landshare programs, boosting local economy and buffering against food poverty - Community biomass fuel production & energy generation through low carbon technology boosting local economy and buffering against fuel poverty - Responsible management of environments to promote resilient, biodiverse wildlife communities, whilst ensuring a balanced provision of effective amenity space for human relaxation and recreation - Green classroom opportunities to create generations for whom green infrastructure is part of everyday life vocational training opportunity (Transferable Land based Skills Training Initiative) for local people to engage in skills vital to the management and delivery of Resilient Green Infrastructure - Local employment opportunity being paid to deliver Resilient Green Infrastructure and its service industries - Advance development and management of Resilient Green Infrastructure resource around potential development areas & ‘Growth Points’ - Provision of key research opportunities to create positive research and design development feedback loops for the pilot studies, and to support the promotion of Resilient Green Infrastructure Methodology: 5- Cross Referencing Wellbeing Benefits based on the analysis and prioritising in stage 4 a Strategy for Wellbeing is generated with links to the Health and Wellbeing Strategy and Public Health Outcome Framework- benefits, e.g.:

Enabling longer happier and healthier lives Green space for exercise/health More physically active adults More supportive environments Promoting access to information, advice and support for work, volunteering and progression to work Reduced debt, poverty and homelessness Supporting Independent Living Supporting people with mental illness or disability Employment for those with a long term health condition, learning difficulty /disability or mental illness Supporting re-engagement of young people into education, employment & training Creative approaches to the ESF (Not in Education Employment or Training) for young people Providing Green Gym and prescription for primary care health promotion & treatment Promoting the wellbeing sector as a potential driver for the Cornish economy Methodology: 6- Mapping Delivery Capacity & Need to develop a prioritised Resilient Green Infrastructure Strategy

assessing the private, public & voluntary sector available for potential engagement in developing potential resilient greenspace infrastructure across the project area

matching development capacity against a prioritised needs analysis

Westley Design Ltd. is working with the European Centre for Environment & Human Health to support the PhD study program of Sara Bell -Perceptions and use of greenspace areas: Implications for landscape design, health and wellbeing (ECEHH)

Sara’s study uses green infrastructure data collected by Cornwall Council as part of the Green Infrastructure Partnership, together with OS MasterMap 1:1000 Raster data. These were subsequently used to determine the type of public greenspace available in her project study areas. • 8 types of public green space were identified: 1. Parks and gardens; Amenity green space; Civic spaces 2. Natural and semi-natural green spaces, Green corridors, accessible countryside in urban fringe areas 3. Public access sports facilities (outdoor): available for community games 4. Children’s play area – equipped 5. Provision for teenagers– equipped facilities 6. Allotments, community gardens, and city (urban) farms 7. Cemeteries and churchyards 8. School pitches and outdoor sports club facilities (No or limited public access) • These reveal a varied mosaic of often hidden, potential space Study site LSOAs (Lower Super Output Areas) in St Austell St Austell study sites N.B. For all these maps, shaded LSOAs are those that are (with Cornwall Council’s urban, have 20-40% greenspace coverage (according to Green Infrastructure data the Generalised Land Use Database 2005) AND are in the overlaid) top or bottom third of income deprivation (according to the Index of Deprivation income statistics 2010)…

Study site LSO (Lower Super Output Areas) As in Falmouth Falmouth study sites (with N.B. For all these maps, shaded LSOAs are those that are urban, have Cornwall Council’s Green 20-40% greenspace coverage (according to the Generalised Land Use Infrastructure data Database 2005) AND are in the top or bottom third of income overlaid) deprivation (according to the Index of Deprivation income statistics 2010)… Pilot Case Study Project Development Action Research Methodology (context: wellbeing professionals linked to community / Neighbourhood Planning projects) Five potential pilot projects have been identified & are under development: • Steeple Woodland, Penbeagle / St.Ives Neighbourhood Plan • ‘Incredible Edible’, Penryn / Chyan Community Field, Herniss • ‘The Big Local’ (St.Blaise Neighbourhood Plan) / Eden Project, St.Blazey • Rame Peninsula, (Cornish ‘Frontrunners’)Neighbourhood Plan • Wadebridge Neighbourhood Plan / Cornwall AONB / Wren Proposed Pilotactivity: 1. Project team assist in mapping opportunities for Performative Green Infrastructure for Health & Wellbeing within the Neighbourhood Plan / community project area 2. Project team Contribute to the development of a strategy for Health & Wellbeing as part of the overall project plan 3. Project team Facilitate the development of a site / wellbeing issue specific local project 4. Community teams engage in action research process with project team toward developing a Wellbeing from Greenspace a Community Planning Toolkit

The Challenge

To collaboratively envision, design and trial the tool!