Strategic Priority
Active Environments
Working towards the strategic priority of Active Environments, Active Essex have been strengthening relationships across the sector and beyond to develop and provide well connected, accessible places and spaces that encourage residents to be active.
Blue, green and community assets are key spaces that offer Essex, Southend and Thurrock residents the opportunity to participate in physical activity. Supporting the delivery of active travel initiatives and positive decision making around planning, and infrastructure, are also important areas of focus for the Active Environments Strategic Priority. Active Essex have continued to build new and stronger relationships to position themselves with partners to ensure this is a priority for many, utilising key data, insight and evaluation to infiltrate its prominence.
Priorities for this strategic priority this year:
- Providing free/low cost activities that utilise local blue and green spaces
- Building a cohesive sustainable transport offer
- Influencing planning and infrastructure
- Inspiring a county through mass-participation events
Active outdoors
From a Find Your Active Basildon festival with multiple partners supporting and Find Your Active Places and Spaces funding being injected into communities, to ParkPlay and Beat the Street initiatives, local places across Essex have been supported to help residents get active outdoors.
Over the course of the Essex Local Delivery Pilot, Active Essex’s relationship with ParkPlay has increased, and test and learn pilots have become an infiltrated part of other local communities’ weekly calendars. This led to Active Essex, and fellow partners, being invited to present at ParkPlay’s national event to share learnings, success and challenges. The next phase of ParkPlay in Essex is to focus on how the local teams can sustain existing sites and, where possible, head towards a volunteer led model, rather than paid.
Due to the success of the partnership work around the Active Thames funding, Active Essex was able to secure further support, which helped groups such as Active Southend on Thames, Cake Club CIO, Sea-Change Sailing Trust and Thurrock Yacht Club to provide opportunities for residents to get active on Essex’s waterways.
Utilising Public Health Accelerator Bid (PHAB) funding, Maldon were able to host a gamification initiative, called Beat the Street across the summer, and has become renowned as one of the most successful areas to host this game. Further information on this programme, can be found further below.
London Marathon Foundation funding for Places and Spaces, following Ford RideLondon-Essex 2024, was secured for year 2, where there was again a high number of applications for this small-scale capital grant.
Following the success of last year’s fund, it was important for the team to reestablish what audience this fund should engage with, as well as refresh the processes for the team to review applications.
Dive in to our blue and green space case studies
Active travel
As one of Active Essex’s flagship programmes with Essex partners, it was great to see Essex County Council receive the MJ Award for the Best Transport Decarbonisation Project with Essex Pedal Power. From 1000th bike giveaways, to the new location of Harlow launching, it has been a great year for the free bike scheme.
Building upon the cycling offer for Essex residents, work began on an E-bike loan scheme, tested by businesses in Basildon. Collaborating with MSEFT and Essex Pedal Power Basildon, Active Essex were able to enhance the offer for NHS staff, and this helped strengthen relationships among those involved.
It has been great to see how well the e-bike pilot is going, but we have incurred some challenges with business sites having health and safety issues with the storage of them. We will continue to work with relevant colleagues to change policies currently in place to overcome this.Kerry McDonald, Active Essex Relationship Delivery Manager
Bike Week aims to show how enjoyable and life-changing making the switch to cycling can be. To celebrate all things cycling in Essex, Active Essex delivered a three-part webinar series, alongside partners, around workplaces, infrastructure and planning, and funding opportunities; to share best practices and ideas from local organisations, for employers, staff, communities and clubs to encourage and inspire cycling participation. Over 70 partners attended these webinar sessions, live and the recording is situated on the Active Essex website for a larger audience to refer to.
Work on other modes of active travel, has been highlighted in the work the team have done around the School Active Travel Toolkit, which was refreshed and launched in October 2024. As part of this work, there has been a huge drive from the Active Environments and Children and Young People team around the WOW school challenge. The walk to school initiative for pupils and their parents/carers creates benefits such as reduced traffic congestion around school sites and promotes healthy lifestyles for the whole family.
This year a successful partnership between Active Essex and Micro Scooters resulted in several school-based projects, as well as Scooter workshops at Essex ActivAte summer holiday clubs. These classes teach children essential scooter skills, promoting both fun and safety.
Additionally, Active Essex trialled scooter packages in priority neighbourhood schools during autumn and winter 2024, to provide students with access to scooters, encourage physical activity, and offer a convenient mode of transport.
Dive in to our active travel case studies
Planning and Infrastructure
Established relationships and the forging of new partnerships this year, has seen Active Essex enhance their offer to support planning and infrastructure using sport and physical activity as a key method to engage communities.
3 Playzone investments led by the Football Foundation were agreed for Tendring, Castle Point and Basildon, and aimed to engage with local communities to create outstanding, community-led sport and activity spaces, that helped tackle inequalities to participation. The capital investment programmes into multi-sport spaces, focused on being community insight and needs led. Over 400 residents fed into the plans, helping to dictate where new facilities were best placed and what sports should be focused on implementing.
Key Learnings
It's important to take time to reflect and understand the learnings from work undertaken, in order to focus on ways to improve in the future.
Secure match funding
Additional funding helped improve and expand 5 sites in Tendring, rather than build one.
Community consultation
Residents want to feel part of decision making, helping to engage communities from the start.
It’s been really important for Active Essex to use our existing strong relationships with each local authority to make sure that the Football Foundation are engaging with the correct personnel. We also provided support and expertise in the application process, and shared learnings between the 3 localities.Juliette Raison, Active Essex Relationship Manager
Further infrastructure conversations consisted of the Active Essex hub teams refreshing Playing Pitch Strategies (PPS) in Basildon, Uttlesford and Chelmsford, as well as local football facility plans and LCWIP’s.
Active Essex have ambitions for 2025 to be the first time that all local authorities have a current and up-to-date PPS and Indoor Build Facility strategy. Harlow are well underway in their development of their first PPS, and the Harlow Place Partnership conversations has helped inject some well needed energy to support this.
A continued relationship with place services has enabled Active Essex to work together to create an Active design presentation for Sport England to share nationally. The team played a substantive role alongside Essex County Council Urban Design colleagues to create the presentation around Sport England’s active design principles. The slide deck included 5 Active Design modules, that are quick and easy for multiple partners to upskill others on and drive this agenda forward.
Dive into the case study on Playzone involvement across Essex
Essex Playzones
Active Essex relationship with the Football Foundation
RideLondon-Essex
24-26th May 2024 saw Active Essex once again support the London Marathon Events team to deliver Ford RideLondon-Essex for its 3rd year.
New relationships with Greater Anglia and Network Rail, along with a strengthened relationship with Essex Emergency Planning, Highways and ICBs, helped ensure access plans were co-designed and in place for use over the weekend to support residents.
London Marathon Events announced the cancellation of Ford RideLondon-Essex 2025, but Active Essex have been involved in all strategic board meetings and supported in providing the Essex perspective. Working alongside ECC comms team to coordinate this announcement to all stakeholders partners, and the public, has resulted in an invitation to discussions that help design the 2026 event.
Following the cancellation of the mass participation ride, the team are exploring a summer cycling series with partners to continue the momentum and legacy from RideLondon-Essex.
Key learnings
It's important to take time to reflect and understand the learnings from work undertaken, in order to focus on ways to improve in the future.
Community engagement
Important to engage with the community from an early stage.
Need for a comms plan
Design the role of comms from different partners to compliment one another.
Create a future legacy
Work with Essex Cycle Grant to coordinate community project legacy events.
Dive in to the 2024 RideLondon event here
Ford RideLondon-Essex 2024
Understand what goes into planning an event like this, and the learnings to take away
