Pocket Parks works update

Over the last two years you were consulted on proposals to make improvements to Hoskins Street, Mell Street and Pelton Road.

Our proposals aim to improve three spaces along the busy A206. The pocket parks will complement the recently completed improvements on the traffic-dominated Trafalgar Road. They are part of our aim to clean up the air, reduce congestion, make the buses more reliable, and make it a good place to walk and cycle. These proposals would create new traffic-free public green spaces to meet, play and relax.

View the notice of works, and to find out more about each of the three planned Pocket Parks. 

What are the benefits of the pocket parks?

The pocket parks aim to contribute to improving the lives of local residents with:

• safer walking and cycling routes to improve air quality
• trees and greenery to improve air quality and wellbeing
• shelter and resting places for residents to rest and enjoy
• planters and raised beds for local people to practice urban gardening
• a nicer environment along Trafalgar Road to encourage more people to shop in the area
• better lighting to discourage anti-social behavior
• improved accessibility
• spaces for children to enjoy on their way to and from school.

We spoke to residents face to face and put the designs online so people could have their say and tell us what they liked or didn’t like about the designs.

What did you tell us?

We spoke to residents face to face and put the designs online so people could have their say and tell us what they liked or didn’t like about the designs. We asked for your feedback three times to ensure local people needs were accurately reflected in every stage of the projects.

• In the first phase in March 2017 an initial resident survey was undertaken to establish what features residents of the LEN wanted from the Pocket Parks project. This survey was also used to prioritise the locations being considered. As a result of the resident survey and feasibility work the locations were prioritised to have concept designs developed.
• In the second phase options for each location were presented to local residents through an online community engagement platform and through offline co-design sessions to ensure these spaces would be designed to meet local needs. Over 1,032 residents took part in the engagement with 238 contributions via the online engagement platform. 95% of say online respondents lived in the local area.
• The third phase of engagement was public consultation took place in December and January 2018-2019. The consultation pack was distributed to 5440 residents and businesses in the surrounding area as well as statutory stakeholders. The consultation was also available online via the Council’s consultation portal and via the Commonplaces platform. The Council received 436 responses in total including online questionnaires and paper copies. The content of these responses is summarised in table 1 below. As shown in the table below, the vast majority (86% on average across the three sites) of residents were supportive or partially supportive of the proposals.