How do you deliver healthier streets on a shoe-string budget?

Public health specialist, urbanist and transport planner Lucy Saunders developed the Healthy Streets Approach in the UK and is supporting practitioners across Australia to apply it.

This work includes developing the Healthy Streets Design Check Australia and taking more than 150 policy makers, planners, designers and advocates through a six-week Healthy Streets Foundation Course.

Lucy’s presentation will dispel the myth that Healthy Streets projects need to be high cost and visually dazzling. She will show how three neighbourhoods were each transformed with just $100,000 AUD capital, using low-cost but high-impact measures.

She will show how the improvements were demonstrated using the Healthy Streets Design Check, how designs were developed to suit the context of different kinds of streets and how this tool can help in assessing options.

This project also raises useful points on how to bring the community onboard with making bold changes. All three projects were made permanent following public consultation, and the local politicians were re-elected at the next election.