Considering the good news announced yesterday for some London urban areas as a smidge under £5m each was made available to 11 boroughs to create exciting walking & cycling projects for Liveable Neighbourhoods, I reflected on the versatility and host of benefits that Parklets can add to the Healthy Streets Liveable Neighbourhoods mission.
Parklets are designed to change the way we think about public space, promote the creation of green sanctuaries in motor vehicle dominated urban environments and to encourage more people to walk or cycle between places to enjoy a protected place on the street for meeting up, lunching, performing or just hanging out.
We experienced broad delight and positive reactions to our Ealing Parklet project with visitors making it a meet up place or lunch stop. Yes, of course there were the moaning minnie’s, a minority of people, mostly residents who did not welcome the Parklet as they perceived that the car parking space was a higher priority – a sure fire reason for retailers and local businesses to thrive, take away a car parking space and the urban trading area was doomed – or so they thought.
In fact the local business owners reported otherwise. Retailers enjoyed the benefit of being identified by the Parklet location, with added sales from butchers, stationers, cafes, clothes stores, booksellers and printers to customers who had stayed in the place longer and new customers who had not stopped in that location before so had missed them entirely.
To ensure our new Parklets meet the Healthy Street Initiative and also the Smart City criteria; “A smart city is characterised by the integration of technology into a strategic approach to sustainability, citizen well-being and economic development,” we have designed our latest Parklet to feature innovative & technological components including solar charged wireless phone charging low impact but useful lighting and monitoring.
Our interchangeable planter/seat/bench/table components have two seat heights to provide ergonomic access for a broad spectrum of ages and abilities. These robust components are complemented with unique structural planting schemes which include urban tolerant, drought & pollution withstanding non-toxic plants, grasses and shrubs. These are all secured into the planters with water reservoirs built into enable easy watering by local residents and maintenance teams.
So whilst our Parklets are designed to change the way we think about public space and promote the creation of green sanctuaries in urban environments they can now also measure use to enable future deployment to areas that could benefit from the Parklet experience and provide added benefit to many visitors and local businesses.
Ask us about our Smart City Parklet - speak to Tim on 01380840819
Press Release on TfL Funding : https://bit.ly/2IVDc4e