Banner: Stevenage Town Centre Gardens
Photographer: AREA

Green Heart Partnership's Stevenage Town Centre Gardens project. Young people meeting in the Open House
Photographer: Beverley Carpenter

Creatively capturing the community's perceptions in Stevenage

Green Heart Partnershp - Stevenage Borough Council Town Centre Gardens

Stevenage Borough Council is working with artist, Beverley Carpenter, to creatively consult with the community about their perceptions of the Town Centre Gardens, and their knowledge of its relevance to the new town heritage of Stevenage.

This project's aim was to bring together the cross-departmental working group to work with a digital artist/community facilitator to find out what the public’s needs and issues relating to the Stevenage Town Centre Gardens are, in order to inform a masterplan to tackle some of these problems.

Having been impressed with the way that the GHP model was working on the Sunken roundabout project with the team in Stevenage, Stevenage Borough Council approached GHP about being involved in the redevelopment of the gardens in the town centre, funded through ODPM Grown Area budgets and potentially Heritage Lottery Funding.

During 2006, Stevenage worked with GHP, and artist, Beverley Carpenter, on a more creative approach to the community consultation prior to their Heritage Lottery bid and master-plan tendering.

Beverley spent time in the park filming, recording and photographing people who live in the nearby flats, pass through the park, or work or shop in the neighbouring town centre. She used a number of methods to engage people, including various events such as coffee mornings and bingo evenings and the installation of a full size layout plan of one of the neighbouring flats in the park.

The results of Beverley’s work will be edited and included as part of the Heritage Lottery application to support the redevelopment of the park.
SBC has also approached GHP about being further involved at the master-planning and development stages of the project.