Doncaster Future Parks Strategy
About the project
Doncaster Council appointed LUC to support the delivery of their parks strategy, an ambitious whole-system review of the approach to parks and open spaces, funded by Sport England.
The largest metropolitan borough in the UK, Doncaster’s challenge is framed by deep-rooted inequalities, including high levels of inactivity and deprivation. These social problems have been further compounded by austerity, which severely affected the potential for developmental investment in the town’s parks.
Our specialist teams provided evidence-based recommendations and action plans, working with the Council to develop a vision that aimed to create healthy communities through improved accessibility to physical activity and sport initiatives.
LUC initially carried out a thorough desk-based review, to provide an insight into Doncaster’s specific health and wellbeing challenges and offer context against which future change could be monitored.
We then carried out consultation with wider stakeholders and borough-wide public engagement initiatives, exploring the expectations of Doncaster’s communities and the key principles which encourage people to use and enjoy public open spaces. The results informed a series of recommendations to build social capacity and encourage greater participation.
Development of the overarching framework involved the creation of bespoke park plans and health and wellbeing proposals for fifteen green spaces within the Borough, prioritising sensitive urban environments or ‘hard to reach’ communities to promote inclusivity. We also provided a Logic Model to link the vision for the project with outcomes over the short, medium, and long term.
The project has helped Doncaster Council to secure £3.1 million of investment from Sport England in their parks and open spaces, safeguarding their place as assets fundamental to the health and wellbeing of communities in the Borough. This will help ensure conditions for residents to be active as part of their everyday lives and improve the town’s current levels of physical activity.
“The LUC project team understood our brief extremely well, gave the expertise that we required and were very flexible throughout which was necessary due to the nature of the programme and the timings of events locally and nationally. The work is now laying the foundations to how we invest in our parks and open spaces in Doncaster.”
Doncaster Council
