Outcome
Better connected and accessible places, designed to increase active travel and physical activity
We want to create better connected and accessible places across Greater Essex, that are designed to increase active travel and physical activity.
This year, Active Essex have focused on increasing active travel initiatives, infiltrating planning and infrastructure plans and activating communities’ spaces and environmental sustainability. Although work is still underway, we are seeing the impact of having better connected spaces and accessible places with active travel opportunities all over the county.
Active travel
Through initiatives such as the Essex Cycle Grant, Love to Ride, Scoot Safe classes at Essex ActivAte clubs and collaborating with schools to encourage sustainable travel methods, Active Essex have been promoting active travel for healthier lifestyles.
Building strong partnerships with local schools in our districts is helping us to showcase how improved infrastructure in and around school settings can help encourage active travel initiatives.
The Essex Cycle Grant has been long established within the sustainable travel team at Essex County Council, and this year the focus was around increasing non-traditional cycling organisations to apply for the grant. In turn creating more opportunities for active travel to connect communities together.
Furthermore, cycling initiatives, like Essex Pedal Power and Love to Ride are helping to make active travel accessible for all.
Active Essex have been promoting and support the Love to Ride campaign through Essex County Council, which has engaged over 500 individuals this year. However, with general workplace engagement low, a Community Engagement Manager hopes to boost participation further next year.
Free and refurbished bikes have been distributed to residents in disadvantaged communities, through the Essex Pedal Power programme promoting cycling to improve physical and mental wellbeing, whilst enhancing access to employment, education and local services. A published Volterra report has helped articulate the impact free bikes schemes have on the economy, health, wellbeing and community connectivity.
Activating community spaces
We know physical activity is good for residents’ health, but creating the right spaces can also encourage social connection, boost wellbeing and increase residents feeling of belonging in their community.
Funding developments and strengthened partnerships have helped improve neighbourhood locations and access to blue spaces for recreation over the past year. Continuation of the Active Thames funding has resulted in over £32,000 coming into the county to activate 5 projects on our county’s waterways. This highlights the strength of Active Essex’s relationship with partners on the Active Thames board.
Partnership working is a key ethos of Active Essex and this has also helped us broker a partnership between Essex Libraries, Move it or Lose it and locally trusted organisation ‘Essex Dance Association’. This initiative has helped to revitalize community spaces through physical activity programmes, reducing social isolation in accessible places.
Similarly, the Places and Spaces grant programme, powered by the London Marathon Foundation has helped Active Essex improve community facilities to encourage physical activity among the most inactive residents in the county.
Encouraging physical activity opportunities outdoors is a fantastic way to boost residents’ wellbeing and physical health, and strong relationships are being formed locally to support the implementation of gamification into communities.
Through a multitude of gamification initiatives such as Beat the Street and Big Team Challenge, the Active Essex hub teams have transferred points, rewards and leaderboards in apps, to motivating individuals to adopt healthier lifestyles.
With an ambition to empower communities and work with them to provide them the opportunities to get active, the public leisure sector has been instrumental. 14 Public Leisure Leads are regularly engaged with the Future of Leisure Board, established by Active Essex, in hope to increase the number of public leisure visits year on year.
The idea around ‘reimagining leisure’ was a key workshop at the Share Connect Collaborate festival of learning. The workshop put a spotlight on transitioning from a traditional leisure service to one more focused on wellbeing. Although work is still taking place on this, Tendring District Council are leading the way in this space, supported by the North Essex hub team.
Read more about how we are activating community spaces:
Library activation
Transforming underused spaces into active, connected community hubs
Thurrock activating neighbourhoods
Community-led engagement
Beat the Street in Braintree
Creating active communities through local connection
Planning and Infrastructure
Active Essex Connected Places outcome leads have been continuing the pursuit to embed Sport England’s Active Design Principles into environments and neighbourhoods to promote physical activity.
At the core of the health creation ideology, residents must feel safe, have a greater sense of belonging and feel connected to their community, and we are firm believers that by embedding active design principles into neighbourhoods, this will contribute to achieving this ambition.
We are now more strategically aligned to the growing HIA work across the county, as well as developing our knowledge around the process of embedding active design principles. For the first time this year, one hub team has been consulted as part of an infrastructure delivery plan review panel, which is fantastic.Juliette Raison, Active Essex Lead for Connected Places Outcome
Active Essex hub teams have been working alongside local authorities on the development of Local Cycling and Walking Infrastructure Plans (LCWIPs), by supporting conversations with our place-based knowledge and community voice. With £7.1 million investment from Active Travel England, we are able to use sport and physical activity as a lever to connect the system and in the future ensure more efficient allocation of resources.
In addition, our local relationships have helped us to actively participate in Playing Pitch Strategies across Greater Essex, aligning future planning with the aspirations of the local communities they serve.
Environmental sustainability
Active Essex have prioritised environmental sustainability over the past year, promoting greener practices through initiatives such as Sport England’s pledge to reduce energy use, waste and reliance on single-use plastics, and Essex County Council’s Environmental training and literacy.
It has been important for the team to not only support organisations and the delivery of sport and physical activity across the county in being more environmentally smart, but to also approach our own work and outlook with the same level of importance. Over half of the Active Essex team are now carbon literate and have already adopted new ways of implementing their pledges within their day-to-day ways of working.
New collaborations with Sport England and BASIS have allowed the team to utilise new resources as part of this important work.
The successful nature of this work was proven after the Lead for Environmental Sustainability at Active Essex had conversations with Sport England to create a positive conversation around the work we’re doing. As a result, our Carbon Reduction Report was showcased at a national Active Partnership conference as good practice.
We have taken great pride this year in monitoring our carbon reduction and encouraging staff to complete the Essex Carbon Literacy training. This has helped us gain more understanding of how we can support our sector to drive towards this agenda, and has been a great step in the right direction.Stuart Tryhorn, Active Essex Lead on Environmental Sustainability
