8 minute read
Planning the UK’s first feminist city
Aerial view of Glasgow’s Kelvingrove Park. © David Simpson, iStock
Glasgow is putting women at the heart of planning, public realm design and policy development.
Glasgow City Council passed a motion in October 2022 to make Glasgow the UK’s first feminist city in terms of city development, noting that ‘in order to create public spaces that are safe and inclusive for women, and accessible for all members of the community, it is fundamental that women are central to all aspects of planning, public realm design, policy development and budgets’. This policy will cover many aspects of city life, with our Head of Planning Sarah Shaw leading on how we mainstream gender in the engagement for our City Development Plan. It sets out how our Plan delivers on National Planning Framework 4 for Scotland and includes ‘Supporting the prioritisation of women’s safety and improving physical and mental health’. This article explores what this will mean in terms of parks engagement, design, management, and maintenance. It will build on recent discussions highlighted in the journal and more widely in the popular media, on ways of making urban spaces safe for women; making parks accessible spaces for girls; and addressing the current interest in active travel, in ways which benefit all sections of the community.
In writing about women’s safety, I remember Moira Jones, who was walking past Queen’s Park, Glasgow, on the evening of her abduction and murder by Marek Harcar, Sarah Everard, kidnapped near Clapham Common before her murder by Wayne Couzens, and Jean Campbell, killed in Cranhill Park in 2013
Glasgow proudly hosted The UN Climate Change Conference in Glasgow (COP26) in 2021, which brought together 120 world leaders and over 40,000 participants, allowing us to share the progress made towards our Climate Plan. Closures of certain routes around venues hosting world leaders, for security reasons, had resulted in women being advised to take a diverted walking route through Kelvingrove Park during hours of darkness, resulting in a campaign by Radio Clyde. A motion was thereafter approved by Glasgow City Council ‘to explore sufficient technological solutions to provide sensitive lighting solutions which keep people safe and promote the biodiversity ….’
To take forward an evidence-led approach to assess possible lighting solutions within Glasgow’s parks and green spaces, we engaged Greenspace Scotland, Scotland’s parks and green space charity, to support us through a series of Place Standard events in three pilot parks, with Emma Halliday leading from their side.
To better understand wider national approaches to this topic, Greenspace Scotland hosted an information-gathering session in May 2022 through their Parks Managers’ Forum. Attendees heard from a range of organisations. Further detail on this work is available.
During September 2022, a survey was made available for residents and key stakeholders, including a range of equalities groups, to give their views on safety and lighting. These were distributed to stakeholders on a geographical basis, as well as being locally advertised for residents and parks users. Submissions from city-wide residents and stakeholders were also welcomed. While 89% of respondents, across the three parks, feel unsafe or do not visit during darkness, and 85% think increased lighting would make the park safer in darkness, levels of support were lower when asked about specific interventions, with:
72% supporting lighting at entrances and exits, 69% supporting lighting on main routes only.
38% supporting the lighting of play areas.
Across the three parks, 25% of respondents were concerned that additional lighting would affect biodiversity and habitats.
Greenspace Scotland was also engaged to support a series of Place Standard events in the three pilot parks in November 2022. The findings of the online questionnaires were shared and discussed at all workshops, examples of other interventions and projects carried out elsewhere in similar settings were highlighted and group visits after dusk were facilitated at each park. While bringing its own challenges, it was felt that carrying out visits during hours of darkness would provide more accurate information in relation to the relationship between place and safety. Representatives were invited from organisations representing those affected by Violence Against Women, as well as from other equalities groups, biodiversity interest groups and research organisations, lighting experts, Police Scotland, Ward Members, Glasgow City Health and Social Care Partnership, Area Partnerships, Friends of Parks Groups, the business community, Glasgow Disability Alliance, and Community Councils.
During December 2022 additional technical workshops took place for each of the pilot parks. These were the important next stage in the placemaking process and involved technical specialists and stakeholders that could actively support or lead on recommendations along with community members that attended the Place Evaluation workshops, and allowed lighting design, impacts on protected species, and energy usage to be evaluated in more detail. It was noted that a number of attendees did not feel that sensitive lighting solutions would be required to keep people safe nor would they be consistent with promoting the biodiversity, while other attendees reiterated their safety concerns and suggested how lighting could be targeted to minimise biodiversity impacts.
In terms of ways that lighting of green space could contribute to other aspects of a feminist city, it was also highlighted to us that greater lighting of play areas would provide better year-round equity of access to physical activity for children and their carers after school.
We are now taking forward a range of early works identified through this process, touching on areas such as design, management and maintenance of the three pilot parks. The following approaches could be applicable in a wide range of landscape settings, improving safety for everyone:
Identify any areas of non-native shrub planting within 6m of a footpath where these could be pruned or replaced with pollinator friendly bulbs and/or native woodland understory planting, to enhance biodiversity and secure by design
Identify any further crown lifting of branches which would improve the effectiveness of the existing lighting units
Enhance entrances by addressing any features which make them harder to navigate at night – this could include widening of entrances or replacement of intermediate gate/ fence panels with drop bollards (with a reflective band and spacing to allow wheelchair access), crown lifting of trees, replacement of non-native shrubs with pollinator-friendly bulbs or woodland understory planting, repairs to surfacing and drainage
Add a reflective banding to features along main routes (such as bollards, benches, signage poles, gate columns) where this doesn’t exist already, and consider additional bollards to fill any gaps) to complement the existing use of bicycle lights, head torches and mobile phone torches by those using the park
Investigate and trial options for reflective path surfacing, to assist with night-time navigation
Review any further existing lighting units which could be brought up to current standard
Review existing signage and map boards; these should offer guidance on night-time routes and map boards at entrances should be located within lit areas (either by new lighting or by moving the map board) We have developed a list of costed routes suitable for new lighting, where it is likely that carefully selected lighting units could deliver active travel and year-round children’s play without having a measurable negative impact on biodiversity.
Many of the attributes visitors to urban parks value during daytime, such as peace and quiet among leafy vegetation, take on a new meaning after dark. In seeking to find the right balance when delivering events, catering, outdoor classes and other income-generating activity, it feels significant that around a third of respondents felt that events, organised sports, cafés or street food, and the staffed buildings/toilets and higher visitor numbers that tend to be associated with these activities, would make the park feel safer during both day and night. If busier parks are safer parks, how does this feed into overall parks strategy and communications, in a world where financial constraints may mean we need to engage with third-party organisations to deliver these activities?
As professionals, we had perhaps been somewhat nervous at the start of the process about how we would balance considerations such as safety, biodiversity and energy usage, whereas the Place Standard format utilised by Greenspace Scotland allowed for real conversations in real parks, during hours of darkness, where women and girls could contribute their ideas and speak to their lived experiences, enabling us to collectively arrive at the right answer.
Rachel Smith, a Chartered Landscape Architect since 2001, has an interest in urban placemaking for health, nature and climate resilience, and is Assistant Group Manager Parks Development for Glasgow City Council.
