Castle Vale Community Parks Improvements

Overview

In February 2022 Birmingham City Council published it's 25 year delivery plan for a City of Nature. This plan will change the way Birmingham treats its natural environment and how it thinks about the future of parks and green spaces. It also has a strong focus on how green spaces impact human life and will involve the whole council and its core third sector partners though a City of Nature Alliance; whilst reaching out to the citizens of Birmingham to facilitate significantly more involvement.

You can learn more about Birmingham's City of Nature Plan via the links at the bottom of the page below.

The City of Nature Delivery Plan has looked at how other cities around the world have responded to the issue of unequal access to green space; and Birmingham is the first UK local authority to develop a measurement tool for Environmental Justice.

Environmental Justice is defined as: "The fair treatment and meaningful involvement of all people regardless of race, colour, national origin, or income, with respect to the development, implementation and enforcement of environmental laws, regulations, and policies."

This information has also been mapped (see below) to show where in the city compound issues are being felt most. 

Over the course of this 25 year delivery plan, the Birmingham Fair Parks Standard will be applied to all parks, starting with the lowest scoring in the red wards, ensuring that all those falling below the fair threshold are brought up to that standard by 2047.

Why your views matter

Dedicated funding has been set aside for the improvement of a number of parks and green spaces in Castle Vale Ward. This is a combination of Community Infrastructure Levy (CIL) funding, City of Nature funding and grants secured by local community groups. 

The spaces being considered for improvements are Hawker Drive Play Area, Blenheim Way Play Area, Spitfire Way Play Area, and Centre Park Play Area shown on the plan below.

Each of the spaces have a range of existing play equipment and we are proposing a number of improvements to these spaces that will help to bring them up to the Birmingham Fair Parks Standard and enhance their use for local residents. Alongside these proposals we would like to hear your views on what else you feel is needed or would like to see in these spaces. 

For this reason we have included a number of questions in the following survey, which are centred around seeking feedback from local residents on what they feel are priorities for these vital green spaces within Castle Vale Ward. 

It is important for us to hear your views on what happens in your local area, in addition the proposed improvements will contribute to the Council’s key priorities:

• An Inclusive Birmingham: through a focus on tackling poverty and inequality, empowering citizens, promoting diversity and civic pride, and supporting and enabling all children and young people to thrive.
• A Healthy Birmingham: through a focus on tackling health inequalities, encouraging physical activity and healthy living, supporting mental health, and improving outcomes for adults with disabilities and older people.
• A Green Birmingham: through a focus on street cleanliness, improving air quality, continuing the route to net zero, and becoming a city of nature.