Helping David Owen find the data he needs to make unattached playing fields in Birmingham more useful and more used.l

Earlier today Steph Clarke and I had a chat with David Owen of Friends of Spring Lane in Birmingham.

Spring Lane is what is know as an “unattached playing field” (not attached to a specific school – although there for the sporting use of primary schools in Birmingham).  Spring lane once had numerous maintained pitches – including the two pitches you might be able to see on google earth.  It also had three changing rooms.  David and the other in the friends are hoping to revive the site for organised sport.    This is , briefly, what David said he is hoping to achieve…

He’d approached us because of the work we’ve being doin g to introduce data and open data skills to community groups through the social media surgeries.

So what was he after?  Information on

Health outcomes in an around this and other playing fields in Erdington. Perry Barr and Hodge Hill.

Crime statistics

Unemployment statistics

Training and skills information.

We pointed him in the direction of work we’ve already done with other groups helping them find what they need, or a starting point for what they need.  Here are some links we shared with him

This explains what Local super output areas are and how you might use them: