Council wins £2.5m bid to improve children’s play facilities

        

Bath and North East Somerset Council has secured £2 million to regenerate local parks and £500k to develop the Play Rangers service.

The Council is just one of a handful of local authorities to be awarded Play Pathfinder status. The funding – from Central Government - will be used to trial new ways to engage with children and young people, making use of parks and open spaces.  

The successful bid will result in:

• the development of a major Adventure Play Park in the centre of Midsomer Norton
• the creation of new large play areas in places that currently have no play provision
• the major refurbishment and improvement of 35 – 40 other play areas

The play areas will offer a wide range of play opportunities for children up to 13-years-old, as well as facilities for young people, acting as a focus for outreach youth work.

They will be staffed and / or developed by Community Play Rangers. Bath and North East Somerset has led the innovation of the nationally acclaimed Play Ranger scheme, managed by Wansdyke Play Association.

These are teams of play workers who are based in parks, schools, open-spaces or play schemes. Teams currently work in Foxhill, Twerton (Rosewarn Park and Bath City Farm), Keynsham and Radstock (Writhlington and Tynings). As a result of the funding more Community Play Rangers will be recruited to work at new sites.

A key part of the development of all the new play areas will be the involvement of children and young people, whose views and ideas will help shape the facilities.

Council Cabinet Member for Children’s Services, Cllr Chris Watt said: “This exciting new programme will help us deliver on our vision to make Bath & North East Somerset an even better place to live. Active and healthy lifestyles are so important for children and families and this funding will help us to improve further our services to them.”

The Norton Radstock area was identified through recent consultation as an area that needed more play provision, and further consultation with children and young people will take place to decide on the location of the Adventure Play Park. The Play Park, which will be free to use, will be accessible to the wider Norton Radstock area via links to the Sustrans network of cycle paths.

Funding will also be used to extend current work in training and informing public sector workers, parents, Parish Councils and volunteers about rights to play; develop Safe Routes to Play between play areas which are lit, well-maintained, and use children’s existing informal routes where possible, and continue the work of the Children’s Society to improve relationships between adults and young people in rural communities.

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