PAST CONSULATION Play for Today
A Strategy for Outdoor Play Areas with Apparatus
The council is seeking your views on the future provision of
equipped open spaces for children's play and other provision for
teenagers. Outdoor play is seen as a vital ingredient in ensuring
the healthy development of children and young people in an era of
declining levels of physical activity.
The review of green spaces has been triggered by a number
of factors:
- from recent customer surveys and our 'Clean and Tidy Borough'
Best Value Review
- higher aspirations - not only for a better standard of
play provision but for the introduction of play facilities suitable
for use by teenagers
- national guidance and statutory obligations suggest that both
access and social inclusion issues are high on the agenda, there
are standards for the manufacture, installation and maintenance of
children's play equipment. The National Playing Fields Association
have a 'Six Acre Standard'
- MORI research shows that among the factors which people believe
will imporve the place where they live is the provision of
facilities and activites for young children and teenagers
- a recent Government Green Paper deals primarily with child
protection issues but does talk about the importance of improving
children's lives as a whole.
The borough context
Maidstone Borough Council's Culture & Leisure Overview &
Scrutiny Committtee has recommeded that a wider range of facilities
should be provided - such as 'youth shelters' and 'sports walls'
for teenagers. And that the young people themselves should be more
involved in the future planning and design of new or refurbished
play areas.
The report looks at the current level of provision in the
borough - the borough itself manages 55 equipped play sites, with a
further 12 due to be adopted shortly, parish councils have a
further 34 and Kent County Council has
1. Looking at this figure against the recommeded hectares - the
council has just one quarter of the recommended minimum amount of
children's equpped play space. A survey carried out in August 2002
identified a substantial amount of repairs that need to be carried
out as well as the up-grading of a fair amount of existing play
equipment. Generally, there is a reasonable distribution of play
areas across the borough.
The Future
The council recogises the limitations in the current stock at
play sites and the desire to provide more facilities for teenagers.
It is unlikely that significant funding will be forthcoming to make
all the necessary improvements and the council therefore has to
make the best use of its limited resources.
A full copy of this report can found by clicking on
Play Area
Strategy.
If you'd like more information, copies of the appendices then
please contact Tim Jefferson at
ku.vog.enotsdiam@REMOVEMEnosreffejmit
The council has closed consultation on this topic, action plans
will be drawn up and the necessary works will be undertaken over
the next 10 to 15 years.
Comment on
this consultation.