Older People's Strategy - Newcastle City Council

93An older person friendly city centreThe Elders Council ‘older person friendly city centre’ grouphas undertaken a range of opinion surveys and street surveysto determine whether, in their eyes, the city centre is an olderperson friendly environment. The results of their work arewritten up in reports (see Annex 7, Note 20), were the subjectof an Architecture Week workshop and have been capturedin a series of cartoons. The group regularly contributes toplanning discussions such as the city centre visioning event.It is also important to capture how older people feel aboutthe city. Members of the Elders Council worked with artists toproduce a DVD capturing their personal views of NewcastlePast, Present and Future.Planning needs to take account of the changing aspirations ofolder people. For example, increasingly older people with mobilityproblems are using scooters or buggies to get out and about.The design of roads needs to take account of this new trendin relation to road layout, dropped kerbs, siting and timing ofcrossings and positioning of the buttons on pedestrian crossings.The quality of a neighbourhood is not just about how it isplanned; it also depends on how it is managed. Issues likegarden maintenance, refuse and litter collection, parkingcontrol, crime and community safety and environmentalmanagement are all vital to the quality of neighbourhoods.A neighbourhood management approach which co-ordinatesactivity in a specific area is being piloted in Newcastle andhas been shown to be effective in improving local servicesand making them more responsive to local people’s needs.