NU Ideas | Season 4 Talk 9 |LA CAT & Small Feet, Big Journeys

Thursday 9th July 2026 | 6pm

NU Ideas | Season 4 Talk 9

A series of talks in partnership with Northumbria University

Let's talk about local authority community asset transfer

A talk by Dr Gillian Telford / Lecturer

Department of Architecture & Built Environment

Research area: Sustainable place-making: community-led, property enabled.

Local authority community asset transfer (LA CAT) is a mechanism which involves the transfer of local authority owned land or buildings to the stewardship and/or ownership of a community-based organisation (CBO). An era of public sector spending cuts, combined with a cross-party consensus on the importance of community empowerment, would seem an opportune time for cash poor, but asset and people rich, local authorities to deploy LA CAT. However, my research, which investigates the practical reality of LA CAT delivery, exposes a landscape where, despite considerable policy interest in LA CAT, LA CAT delivery is in decline. In this session, I hope to explore the conditions that have led to successful asset transfers and to consider if those conditions can be recreated.

Small Feet, Big Journeys: Rethinking Streets for Children

A talk by Ayse Ozbil Torun, Associate Professor

Department of Architecture & Built Environment

Research area: Urban design and planning strategies for active travel and healthy environments
Each day, millions of children make a simple journey that shapes their health, independence, and feeling of belonging to the world beyond—the school journey. But as vehicles dominate our streets, these journeys are shrinking, and with them children's opportunities to walk, play, and explore their neighbourhoods. This talk will explore what makes a street friendly and welcoming for children, moving beyond adult assumptions and survey data, and instead focusing on children’s own stories about how they move through their cities. Drawing on field research with primary school-age children in diverse urban settings, it demonstrates how strategic design can transform everyday trips into journeys of well-being, independence, and local connection.

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