Places and Spaces
A partnership with London Marathon Foundation
This year, once again, saw the Places and Spaces fund open, due to the success of 2023-24. As a small grants initiative to support organisations who want to improve facilities and assets to make spaces fit for purpose, it helps encourage priority audiences to access more physical activity opportunities.
Following Ford RideLondon-Essex 2024 event, the funding partnership with London Marathon Foundation continued, offering more vital support for Essex facilities and assets. The priorities for this funding criteria was to develop community assets to create greater opportunities for physical activity, supporting projects that helped inactive residents to lead active and healthy lives and ensure more inclusive opportunities were available.
Through the Places and Spaces fund, Active Essex were able to support Northlands Park, to install a new green roof cycle shelter in one of the largest green spaces and situated in one of the most deprived areas of Basildon.
As a result, this has created a secure option for cycle storage, encouraging families and Essex Pedal Power recipients to cycle to the park and enjoy other community activities that take place, such as parkrun and ParkPlay.
The Places and Spaces fund is part of a bigger strategic partnership Active Essex holds with the London Marathon Foundation. The investment has allowed Active Essex to invest in physical activity across the county for target groups, as well as along the Ride London-Essex Route.
Rural areas such as Aythorpe Roding, a community engaged in the RideLondon event, benefitted from an enhanced community access experience to their village hall, whilst Budworth Hall in Ongar was supported to create a disabled toilet, and lift to the function room where lots of physical activity opportunities take place. Therefore, highlighting the importance of offering funding opportunities like this, to engage harder to reach communities and groups across Essex.
Take a look at Places and Spaces funded projects here
Aythorpe Village Hall
Vital innovations ensured a more inviting environment for physical activity groups to take place.
Rookery Village Hall
Crucial improvements have been made to the hall, in turn increasing physical activity for local resi...
With only one of the venues awarded funding, being a traditional sports venue, this really suggests that this initiative is tapping in to new inactive audiences, that will make the venues more appropriate to bring physical activity to where these audiences are already meeting.Juliette Raison, Active Essex Strategic Lead for Active Environments
