Engagement with young women in Crewe and Trowbridge 2022

This report summarises the findings of two Peer Research Projects undertaken by LSE Cities in partnership with Make Space for Girls during the summer of 2022 in Crewe and Trowbridge. The programmes worked over a 6 week period with young women to understand how they felt about the public realm where they lived. using a curriculum of academic learning to support the peer research. The young women were engaged by LSE Cities as researchers, recognising their value and contribution to this area of work.

Although there is a tremendous interest among young people in influencing how public space is developed in their local area, in practice the UK planning system creates significant barriers to this participation. The methods by which participation happens are outdated often in the form of letter writing and townhall meetings and on line approaches frequently have low take up among the young. The result is that the right to participate in local planning is difficult to access and difficult to sustain, for young people. There is in effect an engagement deficit. The Peer Research Project covered by this report seeks to address this deficit.