In 2021, 50 residents from across Newham joined the country’s first permanent Citizens’ Assembly, coming together to identify a range of creative ideas to make Newham’s green spaces better, and more accessible.
Assembly Members provided recommendations on the key questions:
How can we work together to make our parks and green spaces even better for residents and visitors?
How do we ensure that everyone has access to green quality spaces?
In a historic opportunity to help shape the borough, residents voted topics to be addressed by Citizens' Assemblies out of a shortlist of themes via the Council’s website.
Thirty one per cent chose ‘greening the borough’, closely followed with 30 per cent selecting ‘the 15 minute neighbourhood’.
Assembly Members proposed recommendations and subsequent actions covering seven themes.
In Newham we will have parks and green spaces which enable communities to connect together for the purpose of fun and engagement. The Council must commit to ensuring people feel safer in these spaces by using technology, projects and other resources to prevent and reduce crime.
Action 1: Re-introduce Park Rangers to engage in our parks
Action 2: Open days & activities in green spaces
Action 3: Programmes for young people and those who are vulnerable
Action 4: Technology, design & equipment
Action 5: Gathering, using & sharing data more effectively
Newham Council should work collaboratively with large and small businesses, communities and individuals to fund and improve green spaces for local communities to enjoy.
Action 1: Conduct an audit
Action 2: Engage with local community groups
Action 3: Provide funding
Action 4: Create a Community Green Guide
Action 5: Provide incentives for greening unused spaces
Newham has activities and events in all of its green spaces, which are inclusive, community led, and Council enabled, where the community has good awareness of what it is on and with local incentives (such as a local currency) to reward people for taking part in and organising activities.
Action 1: Design a digital platform for activities
Action 2: Council guidance on activities
Action 3: Promoting informal activities
Action 4: Rewarding activities
Action 5: Community involvement
Newham Council will protect, maintain and increase well-designed, accessible, clean greenspaces through greater parkland protection, working with developers and local communities to ensure new greenspaces across the Borough.
Action 1: Newham Borough should ensure that new greenspaces are being created and protected, and that all greenspaces are accessible for all
Action 2: Greenspaces will be planned for throughout the Borough
Action 3: Residents should be involved in the consultation processes for new developments to incorporate green spaces
Action 4: Newham Council should work with developers to ensure they meet their development plan and place greenspaces at the centre of all new developments
Action 5: Newham Council will maintain greenspaces to a high standard, ensuring they stay clean and free of rubbish
Create more wild-grown areas, and protect and maintain existing one, to enable and increase biodiversity, increase access to nature and provide long term benefits to the residents of Newham.
Action 1: Leave pockets of wild areas in parks to let nature take its course and increase biodiversity
Action 2: Create more wild areas in unused common spaces and encourage people to do the same in the local areas around their homes
Action 3: raise awareness of importance of re-wilding and biodiversity by educating and involving local residents in activities
Action 4: Using planning conditions to create new green spaces and protect existing ones
As Newham residents, we want parks and green spaces that we are proud of, and we can shout about. To do this recommend:
a. Creating an interactive website dedicated to Parks and Green Spaces
b. Creative community engagement and education to improve social responsibility and positive behaviour change
c. Proper investment in the maintenance of parks
This will ensure that parks and green spaces will be attractive to residents and visitors, people feel welcome, and improve mental health and wellbeing.
Action 1: Create ‘Clean Green Newham’, a dedicated parks and green spaces platform
Action 2: Improve creative community business, education engagement
Action 3: Proper investment in the maintenance of parks
Action 4: Encourage more recycling in parks
Action 5: Explore more creative ways to encourage recycling
In order to make parks and green spaces more accessible, appealing and attractive to all ages, the Council must construct well-designed and sustainably built facilities, and keep people there with the assurances of safety provisions that are consistently offered across the borough.
Action 1: Safety
Action 2: Ecosystems
Action 3: Accessibility in our parks
Action 4: Community-led partnerships
Action 5: Recreational facilities
The Mayor and her Cabinet considered the recommendations made and provided a response
Response to the Citizens’ Assembly on Greening the Borough Park and Green Spaces
In concluding, the Mayor commended the report and thanked residents who had participated in the Citizens’ Assembly, the Democratic Society and the Sortation Society for assistance throughout the process.
The Cabinet Member for Environment, Highways and Sustainable Transport highlighted the positive engagement that had been undertaken. He noted that the proposals of the Citizens’ Assembly were aligned to those of the Council and said he looked forward to further engagement to improve the green spaces in the borough.
The Cabinet Member for Housing Services highlighted that residents were keen to have more green spaces provided on housing estates and that this was particularly important for young people in the borough.