GCV Green Network
Connecting Our Quality Spaces

Milton is a peripheral housing estate on the northern edge of Glasgow.  The vast majority of housing stock in Milton is social rented and the area has been subject to significant change over the years. 

As with many large estates on the edge of the city these changes have resulted in a reduction of the housing stock through demolition resulting in large areas of open space being left over.

These spaces are for the most part mown grass and have low function, visual appeal and biodiversity value. The spaces also add to negative perceptions of the area for local people, visitors and businesses.

The Glasgow & Clyde Valley (GCV) Green Network Partnership brought together organisations with an interest in developing a Green Network Strategy to look at the enhancement of open space associated with social housing. 

While the focus of this work is in Milton, the aim is to develop learning and explore different opportunities which can be adopted by participating agencies. It is hoped such opportunities may then be replicated across the Glasgow & Clyde Valley (GCV) region in social housing areas.

The solutions proposed are likely to range in scale and include:

• Short term, low cost solutions which may be delivered within existing budgets and through changes to management (e.g. creation of wildflower meadows, new paths, seats);
• Medium term solutions which may provide green infrastructure for future land uses (e.g. tree planting, hedgerows, youth shelters, lighting);
• Longer term and more costly solutions which will provide significant community benefit (e.g. growing spaces, play spaces); and
• Temporary opportunities to seek community benefit from underused land until such times as it is required for development;

The study has been supported by extensive consultation and will be published in July 2010.

For a very significant proportion of residents across the GCV region shared backcourts are their closest access to a greenspace. Around 70% of Glasgow’s population lives in tenements with shared backcourts.

Unfortunately for many their backcourts are poorly managed and maintained, making them effectively unusable for many of the uses they were originally intended to fulfil such as:

• Children’s play
• Growing fruit and vegetables
• Drying washing
• Socialising with neighbours

Backcourts are poorly maintained for several key reasons , These include:

• Failed management arrangements, often because of different tenures within a single tenement stair
• Difficulty in collecting management fees from tenants
• Transient tenants with no ownership of the space
• Poor quality design
• Lack of support for tenants

Together these factors can deprive residents of a safe, local space where they can enjoy activities which provide many social and health benefits.

 

 

The Green Network

The Partnership’s vision is that the people in the GCV region can enjoy a high quality Green Network from their doorstep through the urban conurbation to the wider countryside. Backcourts, for many people, are a crucial ‘first step’ into that network.

The Partnership commissioned the Sustainable Backcourts study to investigate the quality of backcourts across the GCV, the range of management arrangements being used and to identify what works, what doesn’t and why.  This was supported by resident consultation to understand what they wanted from their backcourts and the level of involvement they would like to have in its management.  The study developed recommendations to address the identified problems in five key areas:

• Neighbourhood scale social enterprises
• Promotion of best practice among professionals
• Awareness and aspiration raising campaign for residents
• Provide support for residents
• Promote best practice in community gardening

The Partnership aims to explore, with partners, ways in which the recommendations within the study can be progressed.

 

For more detailed information download the full Sustainable Management of Backcourts study from the right hand column.

This study aims to identify and understand what stops people using outdoor space for physical activity. By understanding and addressing the issues it is hoped that it will be possible to increase the use of greenspace and reduce health and environmental inequalities.

The focus of this study is the neighbourhood of Auchenback, East Renfrewshire, however the findings and approach may be applied in many communities across the Glasgow and Clyde Valley (GCV) region.

In Auchenback, death due to coronary heart disease is twice the national average.  While the reasons for this are multiple and complex, providing opportunities for increased physical activity would form a significant part of a package of measures to tackle the problem.

The Partnership’s Barriers to the Green Network study consulted widely with local people in order to get a full picture of real and perceived barriers to accessing the Green Network. The study identified a number of recommendations on how some of these barriers could be overcome. These include:

• the lack of linkages to adjacent greenspace, (i.e. the Dams to Darnley Country Park).
• the quality of local greenspace
• upgrading of path networks, cycling facilities, and public transport
• provision of educational activities

 

This project demonstrates that through listening to people’s views it is possible to identify and address physical and perceptual barriers which prevent some people from using their local outdoor space. This is an approach the Partnership would wish to encourage in similar communities across the region.

Since the GCV Green Network Partnership’s study was completed in Auchenback many changes have occurred.  A fantastic £1.3million will be invested into East Renfrewshire’s Green Network following a successful bid to the Scottish Government Smarter Choices, Smarter Places award scheme.  The application was supported and strengthened by the Partnership’s study. 

For more detailed information on the study download the full report from the right hand column.