Our story
The Bathscape Landscape Partnership consists of 12 member organisations that came together to reconnect people with the natural landscape surrounding Bath and to better coordinate its management. Through funding from the National Lottery Heritage Fund and others, it now runs a suite of 25 projects under the 5-year Bathscape scheme. Project themes include conserving and restoring the countryside, improving health through enjoyment of the outdoors, increasing access opportunities and offering learning, training and skills provision.
The scheme has a particular focus on areas of highest need – although Bath is generally an affluent place there are significant areas of deprivation that fall within the highest 10% of deprivation across the country. With access to green space shown to link to health inequalities, we have projects such as schools work and green prescription services focused in those communities of highest deprivation, while a significant proportion of our outdoor activities take place in those areas.
Overall we recognise the value to health and wellbeing through connection to nature and the outdoors and we are fortunate that Bath is a true landscape city, by which we mean essentially a city where the landscape and sense of nature balances the scale and influence of buildings.
Our advice
Partnership – to understand how you can best reach the right people in the most effective way cast your net wide at the outset and involve as many voices as possible, and not just consulting but taking that journey together. We try to collaborate with just about anyone who is active in our target areas – as a funded project we are well aware that we are time-limited and that success in terms of legacy is reliant on collaboration.
Our metrics
Each of the 25 projects is evaluated differently with regards to meeting the targets and objectives.
Measures range from area of new meadow created to perceived increase in wellbeing.
