Mapping the Area

Inital engagement with Springfield Youth Club has provided some interesting information. Through informal interviews, youth club members were asked to begin the map their routes, experiences and thoughts on a plan of the area.
Questions were asked such as; "what is special about the area? ", "what would you put on a postcard of the area?" and "if you could change something, what would it be?" However this was mostly an information exercise to see how they used the public areas, routes and paths, and why they chose to do so.

What has arisen so far begins to reveal why the area can be seemingly quiet. Although there is a lot of activity within the walls of the community centre, members said they hardly ever used the canal towpath and sometimes even caught the bus the short distance into town. It also emerged that the inability to use public spaces for events and activity had an impact on their interaction and engagement with the place. For example the Butler's sign wasn't at the forefront of their minds when asked to state a landmark. Much different to what I would say.
Answers (so far) span from "the Premier Inn" to "the butchers". The reason for the latter was that it is a remaining shop with distinct specific character. It seems the former answer may be questionable as a 'landmark' if the term is used to describe something that helps you to identify with an area in more ways than just spatially. Perhaps this describes a great deal about the change in urban landscape and attitudes. Also the back route to the train station featured as an interesting route often taken. However the direct route to Broad street was also taken, not simply because it was direct, but "because of the cars".
This puzzled me at first, until it became clear that this was an issue of passive surveillance. The railway bridge route recieved some derogatory comments, therefore initially I wondered why this was a prefered route. The presence and activity of cars proved to be an safer environment and this was coupled with an answer of "because of the lights" - in other words, headlights illuminating the passage beneath the bridge.
Another route previously taken involved steps to the rear of the new student acommodation development and under the railway, which now ceases to exist. The steps were the first thing mentioned as something that they rememered as an interesting and familiar route.

There were very few meeting places mentioned, no areas where any sort of activity took place, members often meeting in town by sight along Broad Street. Perhaps this is a transitory culture that skims the surface of the place. Those 'ways in' to engaging place often missed as they do not feature on a safe or desired route.

On the whole it became evident that activity needs to be allowed to move from the private to the public realm. This could simply mean an external ball court area, or simple lighting to provoke changes.