Bath Communities Partnership
the future depends on what you do in the present
SWT Walkabout Days
Bath & North East Somerset Community Safety Team
Funding: £950
Date funding approved: October 2003
Date of project completion: January 2004
Project summary
The Walkabout model has been pioneered by Living Streets, the former National Association of Pedestrians.
This model has been developed in part because conventional ways of consulting (e.g. paper-based questionnaires) are increasingly generating a low response rate - particularly in areas which are disadvantaged and in need of regeneration, such as the SWT area.
The exercise is a way of weighing up the quality of public space from the viewpoint of the people who use it - rather than those who manage it.
Local people are the experts, the ones who can answer questions like:
- Is this area well used?
- Could it be better used?
- What problems do residents in the area face, on a day-to-day basis?
- How can we improve the surroundings?
- Will these improvements also discourage these specific problems?
Streets and public places are not simply routes for people traffic from A to B. They are also places to meet friends and neighbours, shop, talk, play, eat, read or watch the world go by. These apparently 'trivial' uses of our public spaces are actually an integral part of what it is to be 'a community' - what it is to know our neighbours and be proud of our neighbourhood.
The walkabout day will provide an 'alternative' way for local residents in the Southdown/Twerton area to comment, share local knowledge, and put forward any ideas about how we can enhance Southdown. The walkabout will encourage people to value, and to make greater use of the public spaces in the area.
Panel Right
Design & development by Engino 2003