Councillors at Three Rivers have approved the 'Designing Open Spaces for Recreation' guidance document produced with GHP and with artist, Simon Lee Dicker. This document presents an innovative and sustainable approach to the design of stimulating open spaces and play spaces, and will be used to guide developers in designing open space in all future developments. The document is shortly to be launched, so keep your eyes on the Green Heart website for more details.

As a result of this work, TRDC have begun to change their way of working on other projects. Many other local authorities are expressing an interest in the document, and it has been presented at national level by the Arts Council England, East as an example of best practice in developing policy, and working to develop a new definition of ‘open space’ in the 21st century.

The Team from TRDC have learned the value of the GHP approach, which brings professionals across different disciplines together to resolve issues creatively and collaboratively. GHP has learned that this approach needs to be embedded into policy, and after finding that several districts were raising similar issues and concerns about open space, realized the need to further build on the Three Rivers model. So, Open Space was born. The project brings together a team of officers from East Herts District Council, North Herts District Council, Herts County Council, Herts Constabulary, Herts & Middlesex Wildlife Trust, and Herts Sports Partnership, alongside artist, Lorna Green and Landscape Architect, Oliver Rock. The team are working towards a conceptual document which could be used to support all authorities in Hertfordshire to develop new models of open space in their districts .
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