Residents in Bebington and other areas of the Liverpool City Region will help to design safer, healthier and more attractive streets, as part of the ‘By Ours’ project.
‘By Ours’ is a new community-based project operated by Sustrans in three areas of the Liverpool City Region, Wirral, Liverpool City and St Helens and is set to make streets safer, healthier and more attractive.
Households in the Lodge Lane area of Toxteth, Liverpool and the Cowley Hill neighbourhood of St Helens have received surveys through their doors to gather views about what they like and dislike about their neighbourhood.
Residents in the Bebington area of Wirral will also be surveyed when By Ours begins there later in 2022.
Questions to residents cover topics including safety, accessibility, traffic levels and green spaces.
The survey is also available online and marks the start of a three-stage design process for people to get involved and create streets that work for the whole community.
Everyone in these areas is invited to contribute.
There will be a series of drop-in events where people can contribute their ideas and find out more.
Working together to improve local streets
‘By Ours’ works with residents, businesses and schools to improve local streets.
The whole community comes together to design a vibrant neighbourhood where more people walk to local shops and services and stop and chat to one another, children play out and everyone breathes cleaner air.
There are three stages to this collaborative design process:
- Spring 2022: When views and ideas are gathered by a survey.
- Summer 2022: When Sustrans’ designers shape the community’s ideas into designs for local people to comment on and improve.
- Autumn 2022: When final designs are showcased at a street event.
Local people shaping the future of their streets
Project Officer at Sustrans, Paul Riley said, “This is a fantastic chance for local people to get involved and shape the way their neighbourhood looks and feels in the future.
“We aim to work with all sections of the community to ensure that our streets are working for everyone.
“Everyone’s views are important and help us to understand what local people need to make their streets feel safer, healthier and more attractive.
“There will be lots of opportunities to meet our friendly team in person and contribute ideas in workshops and discussions.”
Real change comes from the grassroots up
Cabinet Member for Climate Change and Environment at Liverpool City Council, Councillor Dan Barrington said, “We’re delighted to be supporting Sustrans in this community led design of a vibrant neighbourhood, which places clean air at its heart.
“As we all know, real change in any neighbourhood comes from the grassroots up and I applaud the approach Sustrans is taking with this community.
“The city council is looking at how it can help improve air quality right across the city and I’m keen to see how this project develops to see what lessons we can learn for the whole of Liverpool to benefit from.”
Image: Jon Bewley/Sustrans
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