Bournemouth’s youngsters will benefit from improved play parks in the borough following a transformation of the town’s public play areas.

The Council has carried out a review of all amenity green space in the borough as part of the Green Space Strategy 2007. As part of that review the Council are required to put together proposals to provide a good park in each neighbourhood of the town to encourage more children, teenagers, and adults to visit more often.

Following the review a number of public play areas have been identified that are not providing accessible, well-used or safe places to play.

By freeing up those sites in the borough, the land can be made available for accessible natural green space enhancing the landscape and environment for the community or re-development where appropriate. An agreed amount from the sale of this land would also be re-invested for the improvement of other local public open spaces in the borough.

Councillor Beverley Dunlop, Cabinet Member for Economy and Tourism said: “It is so important that we make sure our play parks are in an accessible, safe location which provides and caters for the needs of the children and young people in the area. Local people have told us that they want an exciting, interesting and an enjoyable place to go for informal recreation and by providing better placed, better equipped play parks we can meet their needs.”

The proposals will now be developed in consultation with Ward Councillors, with the detailed proposals and programme then to be considered by the Council’s Cabinet.

Notes

The Council currently has 65 public play areas across the borough. Following the review there will be a total of 54 play parks and this will include 11 brand-new play parks. The aim is to create a network of high quality parks supported by a number of smaller satellite play parks throughout the borough.

The Council has carried out a customer satisfaction survey of 15 of its most popular play parks since 2005. The survey gives clear indications of the types of facilities people expect from a high standard play park facility. These include:

• Provide excellent play environments, not necessarily slides, swings, and roundabouts
• Reintroduce an element of risk and adventure into play
• Provide a café/refreshments and clean toilets
• Provide seating, shade and social ambience
• Provide space to play freely or play sports
• Consider teenagers as a different group with different needs and areas
• Consider nature through mitigating global warming, enhancing, biodiversity and introducing children to wildlife
• Link into the greenway network for access on bike and foot