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Youngsters design the town of the future
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| Tuesday 23rd March 2010 |
A group of schoolchildren will tomorrow (Weds) re-design Walsall in an attempt to cut crime, make roads safer and develop facilities for young people.
Teenagers from eight schools will be battling it out in the Annual Regeneration Challenge to come up with a blueprint to transform the town.
The Year 9 pupils will be using a unique design system called Planning for Real to actually create physical models of how parts of the borough will look.
The challenge is being held at Forest Arts Centre in Bloxwich tomorrow and you are invited to send a photographer at 1pm for the presentations.
The event is being co-ordinated by Walsall Education Business Partnership and staff from Accord Housing Association, which owns the Planning for Real system used in multi-million developments across the country.
Using Planning for Real materials, the students will re-design an area of Walsall with three targets of designing out crime, making roads safer and providing facilities for young people. They will present their plans to a panel of judges.
Lorenzo Cozco, of Walsall Education Business Partnership, said: “We are thrilled that the youngsters will actually get to use Planning for Real and have a professional there to help them physically shape how they want part of the town to look.
“Our role is all about bringing education and business together to inspire young people and it’s fantastic that Accord staff are coming along to help with this event and share their experiences of working in regeneration with the youngsters.”
Margaret Wilkinson, who co-ordinates Planning for Real from Accord’s Darlaston-based Neighbourhood Resource Centre for Central England, said: “Planning for Real is all about giving the local community control over the shape of where they live.
“The whole aim is to give people something that they can feel, touch, move about and see working in a real and tangible way, rather than dealing with technical drawings and architectural designs.” |
| Posted by Kim for Accord Housing Association |
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