Professor Andrew Smith’s research on staging events in urban parks has helped reposition public policy and professional practice to protect access to these important green spaces.
Green spaces in a big city mean many things to many different people. They are a place to exercise, relax and socialise for free. They are a place for nature to thrive – often a rarity in urban areas.
It is therefore essential we protect them – both for our health and for the health of the planet.
Inspired by the repurposing of several London parks during the 2012 Olympic Games, Professor Smith examined Greenwich Park’s controversial use as the venue for equestrian events during the Olympics. This case inspired further work on park events.
In his ground-breaking book, Events in the City: Using Public Spaces as Event Venues, Smith analyses the growing use of public spaces for ticketed events to cover local authority budget cuts and points to several dangers associated with this trend.
Commercial events can denigrate public spaces, he argues, by introducing physical, financial, and symbolic barriers that restrict their accessibility.
In a later study of Battersea Park’s use for Formula E motor races in 2015 and 2016, Smith found that restrictions stretched far beyond the events themselves, due to factors like event assembly, environmental damage, and the normalisation of exclusive use.
Smith’s work has drawn attention to these issues, and had a profound local, national and international influence on the way urban green spaces are viewed and run.
Ensuring public accessibility to urban green spaces
Based on his research, detailed above, Professor Smith made a key submission to the National Inquiry into Public Parks, which focussed on: “Why parks matter, what challenges are facing the parks sector, and how we can secure a sustainable future for parks”.
The Communities and Local Government Select Committee’s final report, published in autumn 2017, directly quoted Smith, including his comments on the “’symbolic effects of exclusive events’” and the long-term damage they cause to both green spaces and community access.
Following Smith’s recommendation “that commercial activities do not impinge on the essential qualities of parks: their environmental integrity and their public availability”, the Select Committee report included several recommendations on exclusive uses of parks.
The Government accepted these recommendations in their official response, adding that “the underlying principle is the use of public parks by the public for reasonable everyday use is, and should remain, free”.
To ensure this principle would be met, the Government formed the Parks Action Group (PAG), in September 2017, with £500,000 of funding support.
The PAG’s work has already led to 352 grants to support community groups in creating 146 new parks.
As the Communities Secretary states, these parks provide new areas for children to play, people to exercise, and “for families and friends to come together, helping encourage community integration and tackling loneliness”.
Empowering local community groups in their efforts to protect their green spaces
Since 2016 Professor Smith has been working with Parks for London as part of their “Action Group on Major Events”.
As an appointed member of this group, Smith used his research to produce 12 key recommendations for the effective, community-engaged, management of park events – and co-produced a London-wide park events policy template.
Published in 2018, this template offers a detailed 30-page policy document that local parks community groups can customise and present to relevant authorities for adoption.
Lambeth Council, for example, adopted recommendations made via an Outdoor Events Policy produced by Brockwell Park Community Partners, which was based on this template.
These recommendations included practical steps to keep parks accessible to the public.
For instance, authorities must now publish a statement of an event’s impact on the environment and local community, with a commitment “to review actions and reduce negative implications for future events”.
Ensuring that community voices are heard, Lambeth Council further emphasises that: “In line with the Parks for London recommendations, we are proposing that community engagement happens earlier in the event application process.”
“A green oasis not an event space”
Central London’s iconic garden square, Grosvenor Square, is being redesigned in consultation with the public.
As part of this endeavour, Professor Smith was invited by the design team to speak about his research at two online events.
Both had around 100 attendees and featured contributions from Public Health England, the Design Council, the City of Westminster, London National Park City and prominent architects.
In The Big Topic Talk event of 9 June 2020 on urban spaces and wellbeing, Smith highlighted the negative impact large-scale commercial events can have on these spaces.
There followed a 28 July panel discussion about whether the pandemic had changed what the public wanted from green spaces.
Smith’s engagement helped the design team to reach the decision to lessen the emphasis on events in the square’s new design.
Andrew’s expertise around the programming of public spaces was really insightful for us. Prompted by points he raised, and the conversations that flowed from them with the community and within our business, we have decided to deprioritise designing specifically for events within our proposals.
- The Senior Development Manager of Grosvenor Square.
The design team will now, first and foremost, focus on day-to-day users of the square, who rely on the space to take a break from the bustle of central London.
In effect, making Grosvenor Square a “green oasis not an event space”.
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