Young Urban Designers Programme Shortlisted for National Transport Award
An initiative by Camden Council and its partners to empower young people to lead in creating proposals for safer streets has been nominated for a national transport award.
The Young Urban Designers Programme, run by Camden Council in partnership with Fitzrovia Youth in Action and Sustrans, has been nominated for ‘The Transportation Education and Advocacy Award’ at the annual CiTTi Awards.
The awards celebrate outstanding contributions to innovation and community engagement in transportation. The Young Urban Designers Programme has been recognised for empowering young people on the Regent’s Park Estate to take leadership of their community’s vision for safer and greener streets on their estate.
The Programme was delivered as part of wider engagement with the local community in which more than 100 residents shared their views on how they want to see £2.4million - which Camden Council secured from HS2 Ltd - used to deliver public realm improvements on the Regent’s Park Estate.
Through the Young Urban Designers Programme, community events, accessibility audits with local disability groups, walkabouts with local school children, and engagement with businesses, young people and residents from the estate co-designed proposals and shared their views on where they want to see safer crossings, less through traffic, more seating and greenery, and new walking and cycling routes.
The award nomination comes as Camden Council announced a £22m investment in the next phase of its transport strategy for 2025 to 2028, investing in more environmentally friendly, healthier forms of travel and creating more welcoming streets and neighbourhoods.
In total, Camden Council has received five award nominations at the CiTTi Awards that include:
- The City or Town of the Year
- The Road Safety Award
- The Traffic Management Award
- The Micromobility Award
As a Council we are determined to engage more young people and underrepresented groups as we work closely with our communities to invest in safer, greener and more accessible streets.
On the Regent’s Park estate, it is young people who will live through the most years of HS2 disruption. Therefore, we wanted to deliver a programme that would go beyond standard consultation practices and bring young people into the decision-making process, while empowering them to be the ones to bring their community together to create a shared vision for their estate.
It’s fantastic that the success of this programme has been recognised by the CiTTi Award nomination. We look forward to replicating this example of best practice across the Council, and as we work with our communities to continue investing in safer and greener neighbourhoods.
Oli Ivens, London Director at Sustrans, said: “We are so pleased to have been able to empower young people to explore their neighbourhood and privileged to have heard their views on how they would like to improve local transport, urban mobility and road safety. The young people were given the opportunity to design their own ideas on how to improve their local area using the computer game Minecraft.”
“If we focus on what makes a good place for children to live in, we can create a city that benefits everyone.”
Empowering youth leadership through the Young Urban Designers Programme
Young people have historically been underrepresented in community consultations, despite being the group that will benefit most from streets that facilitate safe and active travel. While in Euston they are also the generation who will live through the most HS2 disruption.
To address this, young people on the Regent’s Park Estate - aged between 11 and 19 – were supported by Fitzrovia Youth in Action and Sustrans to take leadership over the decisions that will be made about their local area and to have a key role in developing the proposals for their estate.
Over 14-weeks the Young Urban Designers learnt about street design and transport planning and gained experience in public speaking. They completed site visits around their estate and to other boroughs to develop their ideas. They also held their own pop-up events and workshops to better understand the priorities of other young people in their community.
Using the game Minecraft, the young people developed their own designs for the transformation of Robert Street, working closely with engineers, planners and urban designers from the Council before presenting their visions to their friends and families and Camden Councillors and Officers. Their designs for Robert Street featured colourful crossings, spaces for play, and more lighting, bins and seating.
One of the young people who participated in the scheme and presented their views to Councillors said: “I’m proud of my Minecraft images I got to create and doing the presentation at the end to [Camden Council] staff.
Five Regent’s Park streets set for improvements
Input from the Young Urban Designers and the wider community on the Regent’s Park Estate has been used to produce initial sketches to address road safety, transport and public realm issues on five streets on the estate:
- Robert Street
- Osnaburgh Street
- Stanhope Street South
- Augustus Street
- Albany Street
The Council is developing formal proposals for each of these streets based on input received from the local community and from next year residents will be invited to continue shaping how the schemes are implemented as each is taken to formal consultation.
Find out more in the ‘Regent’s Park: Safe and Healthy Streets’ report and about the Young Urban Designers Programme here.