To consider the review of play parks including a condition survey and the outcome of engagement with young people and make recommendations to the Cabinet.

The Cabinet Member for Pride in Place, Transport and Parking, Councillor Billings and the Managing Director of SWISCo, Matt Reeks provided an overview of the submitted report on the initial stages of the development of a Play Improvement Strategy for Torbay.

The Board asked questions in relation to the following:

·                     why not all 74 play parks were shown on the maps and what the names of the 74 play parks were;

·                     what benchmarking had been done with other local authorities e.g. Cheshire West and Chester (see https://www.cheshirewestandchester.gov.uk/your-council/policies-and-performance/council-plans-policies-and-strategies/play-strategy);

·                     the rationale for the clusters and if they would change or could be broken down further; the rationale for including St Marychurch in Torquay Central and how this would skew the deprivation weighting for Ellacombe and Tormohun;

·                     why was 2019 Multiple Deprivation statistics used and not 2024/2025;

·                     why was the play area at Torre Marine showing as private play area, had this not been transferred to the Council;

·                     what input had been provided by Public Health, the Youth Service and young people (e.g. as part of the UNICEF Child Friendly work the Council had spoken to over 2,000 children and their number one priority was feeling safe and secure, they talked about their parks and how they saw their interactions with older and younger children);

·                     what options were being considered for more natural play spaces;

·                     what was being done to learn from insurance claims and understand the reasons and what could be done to reduce the number of insurance claims being made in respect of our play parks and spaces;

·                     what was covered by play value;

·                     the priority order showed 12 play parks in Barton and Watcombe with one in Queen Elizabeth Drive further down the list, would all 12 play parks be delivered or would there be flexibility in the order;

·                     there was a lot of new housing being developed what was being done to consider appropriate play facilities;

·                     how would community partnerships be engaged in the process;

·                     who else was proposed to be engaged in the process;

·                     would the proposals include equipment, lining on green spaces to encourage sports, work to make paths safe and accessible etc.;

·                     could the Council influence the types of equipment for new play areas;

·                     where equipment had been taken away could the areas be reused; and

·                     what consideration was given when play equipment needed to be removed due to safety to alternative funding proposals.

The Cabinet Member for Pride in Place, Transport and Parking, Councillor Billings and the Managing Director of SWISCo, Matt Reeks provided the following responses:

·                     The paper outlined the start of the process which would lead to a long development of a wider strategic Play Improvement Strategy.  This would be used to lever in funding from other sources as well as investing £500,000 allocated as part of the budget process.  There was very limited budget available for the maintenance and investment in play parks and it was important that it was spent in the most effective way taking into account the needs of the areas and prioritising those with highest levels of deprivation.  The proposal was for Ward Councillors to visit the parks and give feedback and suggestions as to who else should be engaged based on local knowledge.  Members were encouraged to provide feedback and make suggestions as to how best to proceed.

·                     Clustering of the play parks was to recognise them as a community rather than by Ward, looking at how parents and children use the areas.  There was scope for the clusters to be amended but it was important that they were looked at as groups of facilities in order to take an area based approach to ensuring different offer within the community.  Not all the parks were showing on the maps due to the data sets available but this could be reviewed. 

·                     There had been some consultation carried out last summer and engagement with Tanny Stobbart from Play Torbay, Indigos Go Wild, the Police and other groups and professional colleagues to get an initial steer on opportunities for consultation using an informed and focussed approach as well as looking to design out crime.  It was proposed to further engage with Members via the site visits and then identify wider groups/people to engage with.

·                     The 74 play parks were being viewed as play spaces rather than traditional play areas to ensure a variety of options for equipped climbing, spinning, turning etc. and facilitating more natural landscaping for creative play, green spaces etc.

·                     There was a large amount of data on insurance claims and the annual condition survey and it was proposed that this would be shared as part of the site visits relevant to each cluster.

·                     The value of play was a personal opinion based on factors including visibility, users feeling safe, open spaces rather than being enclosed by hedges, how inviting the space was, entrance, colour, offer, not just based on the amount of equipment.  Spaces that could accommodate a lot of children and be used in a number of ways would score higher than those with single pieces of equipment. 

·                     The priority list was developed using a matrix of factors including condition, safety risk, value with data sets that could be mapped into zones.  It would look at the spectrum of all the equipment e.g. 12 in Barton and Watcombe and what works best for the area e.g. alternative play. 

·                     Spatial Planning had documents about play facilities and the Play Improvement Strategy would help to inform new opportunities for play.

·                     It was not always possible to reuse pads where equipment had been removed due to the ground conditions, health and safety requirements and prohibitive costs of digging down old foundations.

Tanny Stobbart from Play Torbay made representations and suggested the merit of linking up with the Child Friendly Communities Network, particularly Cardiff, who had gone through a similar exercise with their Play Strategy.  Ms Stobbart advised that the Government was due to launch a new Play England Strategy next week and an all-Parliamentary Group for Play which would support what the Council was trying to do in Torbay.

Margaret Forbes-Hamilton from Torre and Upton Community Partnership and the Torbay Greenspace Forum made representations and highlighted examples of community engagement and working with schools to design the play park at Torre Marine as well as working with local primary schools to design the spaces at Upton Park.  Ms Forbes-Hamilton emphasized the importance of girls feeling safe, preferring open spaces as well as ensuring that consideration was given to facilities for children in Years 5 to 9. 

The Board was disappointed that it had taken so long to bring forward a paper with initial proposals for the Play Improvement Strategy but welcomed the opportunity for Councillors and other stakeholders, especially children and young people to develop the Strategy.

Resolved (unanimously):

That the Managing Director of SWISCo, in consultation with the Cabinet Member for Pride in Place, Transport and Parking, be recommended:

1.         that the Overview and Scrutiny Board supports the next steps identified in the submitted report to develop the Play Improvement Strategy and encourages Councillors to attend the site visits and provide feedback throughout the process, including on key groups and organisations to engage with to inform the design of the Play Improvement Strategy and notify the Managing Director of SWISCo and Cabinet Member for Pride in Place, Transport and Parking of any appropriate events in their communities where the Council could engage on the development of the Play Improvement Strategy;

2.         that a detailed list of the 74 sites be provided to Members by Ward;

3.         to consider when equipment is removed from a play park it is presented to Ward Councillors as ‘we have a problem with the equipment which will result in removal’ and asking if they have or are aware of any funding for alternative proposals;

4.         to provide Members with details of what Section 106 monies are available for play parks and in which areas;

5.         to share a list of groups SWISCo will engage with via Governance Support and for Members to advise of any missing groups;

6.         to consider working with Allison Grant, Child Friendly Project Lead, Children’s Services and the Child Friendly Communities Network, particularly Cardiff, on their approach on how to engage on play strategies, and to build on the work of Chester West Council on how they developed their Play Strategy;

7.         to consider a proposal for park plans, which would set out who was responsible for what within the area and what events were proposed to be placed on notice boards in the vicinity;

8.         to update the matrix using current Multiple Index of Deprivation; and

9          that the outcome of cluster visits and proposed plans for the Play Improvement Strategy be submitted to a future meeting of the Overview and Scrutiny Board prior to final sign off.