Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
Passive recreation
0.8
Average
2.8
Source:
modified from Pentz (2002)
feature of modern recreation planning, with a greater emphasis on 'users', 'market
research', 'local culture' and specific target groups with individual needs including pre-
school children, primary school children, teenagers, adults and elderly people. Add to
this, gender, ethnicity and the policies towards social inclusion in urban recreation
provision, and one begins to understand the complexity of modelling and planning local
leisure needs. However, place and space are vital in the planning of open space and
leisure facilities, as individual localities and their populations have divergent needs and
wants.
While the use of space standards has the advantage of simplicity, efficiency, equity
and uniformity in the planning process, it has many disadvantages including the lack of
fit with the social, economic and resource base of the locality as well as the lack of spatial
specificity in the fit with the local area (e.g. in relation to the catchment, social mix, uses
by social groups and need). As a result the more innovative approaches being proposed
which include a substantial market research element to assess local needs, the use of GIS
to match supply with demand and models of provision that are linked to current leisure
consumption trends and more sophisticated than simple space standard methods. One
local authority currently investing in such an approach is Waitakere City, Auckland, New
Zealand which has commissioned a leisure strategy to reposition its leisure service
provision in a more innovative manner so it is community focused, with a greater
emphasis on local needs and specific user groups.
To illustrate how these issues have been embodied in one large urban area and the
implications for the local population, the following case study highlights many of the
basic principles used in urban recreational provision and planning in the London Borough
of Newham.
CASE STUDY: The management, planning and provision of parks and open space
in the London Borough of Newham
There has been a comparative neglect of urban parks by leisure and recreation
researchers. Much of the research undertaken in the UK predates the legislation and
changes introduced in the late 1980s and 1990s, although previous studies of urban parks
have established their significance in metropolitan areas (Veal 2001). Duffield and
Walker (1983) produced a detailed review of research on urban parks which included a
number of notable studies (e.g., Greater London Council 1968; Balmer 1973; Bowler and
Strachan 1976). Previous studies of urban park use indicated that their catchments were
localised and informal, fulfilling, short-distance and short-stay recreational needs
(Patmore 1983). Since the early 1980s, research on urban parks has focused on historical
reconstructions of urban park development, user-based research (including behavioural
and perception-type studies), research on park planning, access-related studies, and a
growing interest in the application of management principles to parks (e.g. Baird and
Mitchell 2001) in different countries (e.g. see Yilmaz and Zengin's (2003) and Oguz's
(2000) studies of Turkey Gobster's (2002) and Tinsley et al 's (2002) studies of Chicago
