Parks and open spaces build communities

The recent headline in CYP Now - A fifth of deprived children never spend time in nature - struck a chord with me as it's an issue we've been tackling head on in Blackpool.

With seven miles of golden sands and blue flag beaches, you wouldn't think access to the great outdoors would be a problem for Blackpool families. Unfortunately, as we know from the study this story reported on, this is not the case.

Blackpool, as part of the National Lottery investment in A Better Start (ABS), is to remedy this by working with our communities to find out how best to transform our outdoor spaces. It would have been easy to buy vast amounts of early years play equipment and helicopter it into our parks, placing it where we thought was best. However, at the heart of our approach is community consultation and co-production, and we've learned that to achieve long-term sustainability and "buy in", the community needs to be equal partners in all decision making.