How towns decide what their green spaces are for
The lead : how a PPG17 assessment worked
Practice : consultation done properly
Archive : the consultancy behind this address
Reviewing plans, auditing every site, scoring quality and value, then consulting residents: the anatomy of an open space study.
Audits, consultation and provision standards: the working method that told a council what its green space was actually worth.
Play England indicators, Fields in Trust benchmarks and play strategies: what good local play provision looked like.
Read the pieceAuditing every pitch, asking every club, modelling demand: what a playing pitch strategy proves and how it is used.
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What changed when national planning policy was rewritten in 2012, and what an open space study still has to prove.
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Structured consultation, exhibition materials and response discipline: how councils gathered views they could defend.
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Demand evidence, costings and options appraisal: how a leisure or open space project was tested before money moved.
Read the pieceSix acres per thousand people, play space typologies and local standards: where the famous benchmarks came from.
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Historic layers of parks and recreation grounds: how heritage was recorded and weighed in open space decisions.
Read the pieceDoorstep surveys, site audits and postal questionnaires: the field methods behind credible open space evidence.
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Assessments, audits and provision standards: how a council learns what its green space is worth.
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Play strategies, Fields in Trust benchmarks and playing pitch strategies, explained from practice.
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Consultation, feasibility, heritage mapping and the archive of a twelve-year consultancy.
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A scheduled motte-and-bailey site beside the River Tove: what a heritage-led open space project involved.
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A play trail for a country park trust near Peterborough: consultation and provision in a landscape setting.
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A London borough-wide PPG17 open space, sport and recreation study: audit, consultation and green space strategy.
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Doorstep surveys, site audits and postal questionnaires: the field methods behind credible open space evidence.
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Every site on a map, every home in a catchment: how GIS turned open space audits into planning evidence.
Read the pieceCommon Ground is an independent journal on parks, play and open space planning, written by an editorial desk working from public sources cited on every page. To suggest a correction or a source, contact stays open; the house rules are in the legal notice.