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Laying eight hundred square metres of
turf
on a street was no mean feat; even if it was only
for a weekend back in 1996.
Back then, no-one in the UK had heard
of the term 'Home
Zone', but the impact has been remarkable. It has
led to a change in government policy and a commitment
of £30 million to create neighbourhoods with pedestrian
priority all
over Britain.
Click the image for a larger picture
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The Story
The Methleys is a neighbourhood of 300 back-to-back and terraced
houses on the edge of inner city Leeds. The houses have very
small gardens or yards and the only public space is the streets
themselves.
It was a local resident Rita who took the first
step. Rita lived in Methley Terrace and was concerned that
there were no facilities for children and no play provision
in the holidays The streets were the only places that the
children in the neighbourhood could play. She made a leaflet,
delivered it to her neighbours and invited anyone who was
interested in the issue to come and meet in her front room.
Thus Methleys
Neighbourhood Action was born. Committed to improving
the public spaces in the neighbourhood; particularly issues
of play, traffic, environment and crime. It was going to be
a long haul, but this was a committed group of people.
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That's when Heads Together got involved.
The purpose was clear. Time to add a bit of creativity.
If the only public spaces were the streets, how could
we inspire the imagination of residents to view them
as something other than a space for cars.
Whilst Eddy Walker architect came in
to listen to people's ideas and develop designs, we
decided it was time to do something exciting.
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The first "On
the Streets" festival involved closing one of the
streets off during the daytime and having the very first Methleys
fêtes – complete with tombola, pet show, live music,
barbecue and outdoor aerobics. But we left the best to last.
We painted one of the gable ends white, hijacked a child's
bedroom, got ourselves a projectionist and a copy of the film
"The Commitments" and whilst 300 people brought
out sofas and chairs to sit in the street – we showed
the very first film on the Methleys'
own outdoor cinema.
That was just the beginning. The Methleys was
on fire! During the consultation work carried out as part
of the "On the Streets" festival, all the children
had agreed they would like a play area. 'But where?' we asked
them. Whilst the older children pointed to the school playgrounds
or under-used parts of the streets, the younger children had
very simple answers - either "outside my house"
or "in all the streets".
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The architect Eddy Walker we had brought
in to work alongside the community, knew what the children
were talking about; neighbourhoods designed with the
needs of people in mind. These kinds of places had been
around in the Netherlands and Germany for over 25 years;
they were called woonerfen or Home Zones.
The children had led us to the obvious
answer for the Methleys and they were to play a major
part in achieving that goal; although some of them would
be grown up by the time the Methleys became a Home Zone.
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When we went to the Council and asked for the
Methleys to be made into a Home Zone, they said it couldn’t
be done. We would have to change the law and government policy
to do that… The challenge was clear and everyone was
up for it. We made contact with two lobbying organisations
– the Children's
Play Council and Transport
2000. It just so happened they were both interested in
trying to start off some campaigning around safer residential
streets. We had a little idea that they thought would fit
in just perfectly.
In the Methleys, we had got a long way with
people but the ideas that were coming up were not very adventurous
– lots of discussions about speed humps. But what if
you completely re-designed the space between the houses looking
at the needs of children, adults, cyclists as well as car-users?
We had to do something to inspire the imagination – something
obvious but unforgettable – like laying turf on one of
the streets. Just for a weekend, but just to give an idea
of what might be possible if we opened our minds to the possibilities…
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It was the most fantastic weekend. Middle
of August 1996, glorious sunshine, eight hundred square
metres of turf and Methley Terrace was transformed.
In a way, actually getting the turf laid
was the easy part. We faxed a few turf companies and
the Managing Director of one of them called right back.
He would love to do it. Keeping the grass watered over
the weekend was more of a challenge considering we were
right in the middle of a hosepipe ban, but we got plenty
of watering cans!
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The amazing thing was what people did once
they had a green street, a village green, a venue, a stage.
From brass bands to Thai Chi at dawn, pony rides to egg and
spoon races, home baked produce to fireworks; the weekend
was one that no-one will forget.
And people all over the country still remember
the pictures of the turf because every national newspaper
and all the main television channels covered the story. That
was because of the work of our partners – Transport
2000 – they knew exactly how to make best use of
the event.
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Clipping from The Daily Mail
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And so the campaign for Home Zones truly began.
Not to say there wasn't a lot of hard work left to do. Twelve
children went down to the House of Commons to talk about the
need for Home Zones. "I feel proud because we are making
history today" said Harry interviewed on television.
When things got stuck the children even got themselves a solicitor
who was going to start Judicial Review proceedings.
In 1997, Heads Together were commissioned to
make a film about Home Zones in the Netherlands and Germany.
"At
Home in My Street" has been used in literally hundreds
of neighbourhood meetings across the UK by groups of residents
wanting to find out more about Home Zones.
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And then in 1998, with a new Government
in place, things really did begin to move. Nine pilot
Home Zones were announced in England and Wales; the
Methleys was one of them. Even before the pilot projects
were finished, the Government announced a £30million
Home Zone Challenge which is to fund a further 60 Home
Zones across England and Wales with a further programme
north of the border supported by the Scottish Parliament.
In May 2002 the Methleys Home Zone was
officially launched; eight years after Rita had taken
the plunge!
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In the same year Heads Together were commissioned
by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation to make another film –
this time tracking the British experience of making home zones;
travelling around the UK, watching hundreds of communities
getting together, often for the first time, to discuss how
they could make their streets better places.
It took a lot of work from a lot of different
people to change a Government's policy. If you ask some of
the people who have been involved, what it was that got them
involved, made them believe or made the difference –
many people will smile and reply – "the grass".
For Heads Together it is proof that a little
bit of creativity (and a lot of turf) can have a real, lasting
impact.
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