Oxfordshire has one of the lowest levels of access to public green space in England. Yet the importance of a high-quality, accessible-to-all, public environment to our communities’ physical, mental and emotional health was never more stark than during lockdown.

Tim Gill, a world-leading authority, and author of Urban Playground: How child-friendly planning and design can save cities will join local voices to reimagine an Oxfordshire where access to the built and natural environment enables all children to make use of their right to play, wherever they live and whatever their circumstances.

This session is part of the Build Back Fairer series of monthly events focused on how we can shape healthier places by making our public environments more accessible for all. These events are co-hosted by Active Oxfordshire, Oxfordshire Liveable Streets and other local partners.

Access to public spaces has long been recognised to produce positive health, environmental, economic, and social outcomes for residents who can access them.

The COVID-19 pandemic has made these benefits increasingly obvious, leading to increased use of our streets, parks, and other open spaces – even repurposing car parks – as places for people to gather, exercise, socialise and access services.

There has been a call to ‘Build Back Better’, but following unequal impact of Covid-19 on widening social, economic, environmental and health inequalities, Active Oxfordshire, Oxfordshire Liveable Streets, and other local partners will hold over the next six months a ‘Build Back Fairer’ series of events that will consider how we might address inequalities of access to the our streets, parks and other public spaces to shape Oxfordshire as a healthier and happier place.

(The Build Back Fairer series is part of Active Oxfordshire’s commitment to a Healthy Place Shaping approach – for more information on Healthy Place Shaping in Oxfordshire click here)

Tickets will be available for the following sessions soon.

October Session - Title TBC – addressing inequalities of access to public realm for people from ethnic minority backgrounds

November Session - TBC – addressing inequalities of access to public realm for people with disabilities

January Session - TBC – addressing inequalities of access to public realm for older people

February Session - TBC – addressing inequalities of access to public realm for teenagers and young people

March Session -TBC – addressing inequalities of access to public realm for women