News on Down Lane Park Improvement

When we engaged around the early stage designs for Down Lane Park in October 2022, we didn’t reach as many young people as we would have liked. To address this the Council has been working with young people in Tottenham Hale to capture data on how the park is used and perceived by the broader community, including younger residents and users.

With support from the Mayor of London via his Green & Resilient Spaces Fund, the council is working with Kaizen Partnership to train young Tottenham Hale residents to become Community Researchers. This has involved capturing park user data; speaking to park users about how they use the park; and what they’d like to see improved.

Kaizen Partnership have trained eight young local residents, to date, who have spoken to 147 park users so far. Those that have received training, will continue to capture data in the park, in Spring, Summer and Autumn. Participants have benefited from acquiring new knowledge, skills, and experience that will boost their confidence. Participants were paid to receive training and undertake data capture.

Outputs from the exercise are helping to inform designs and improvements for the park. So far, their findings have shown 72% of respondents had not shared their views before, and respondents were more representative of the neighbourhood’s diverse community than during earlier public engagement. For example, 29% of respondents identified as Black and 41% were younger than 30 years old.

The Community Researchers will be in the park again in May, speaking to park users and residents and asking them to share their views about the park. We will be wearing one of the badges; if you see us, feel free to come and say hello and tell us how you use Down Lane Park and how you’d like to see it improved.