Priory Park Playground
News statement dated 23 October 2007 about the new Priory Park Playground.
The new Priory Park Playground has been designed to be an exciting and stimulating play area with high play value.
Land Use Consultants, who designed the new playground, have designed the play space to be an inviting space for both children – to play, and adults – to sit and watch (or even join in) all year round, not just in summer sunshine. They state: “We believe that by designing it using natural materials and planting, we will create a space which is enjoyable for both adults and children to use.”
Executive Member for Leisure and Wellbeing, Cllr Tom Stoddart, said: “There have been many reports in recent years about the ‘dumbing-down’ of play equipment for children. We have fought back with a playground that is exciting, stimulating and challenging for children yet blends in well with its historic and natural surrounds. All the experts in this area agree that children need challenges in their play environment in order for them to learn and develop, and the many happy faces I’ve seen in this playground confirm this. Of course we assume that the children on site will be supervised by parents and provided with appropriate help and encouragement to use the equipment safely.”
The use of natural materials particularly increases the play value of the site. Considerable research has been carried out on how children use play areas. Research shows that whilst children are drawn to use a site by the presence of equipment, they stay there far, far longer where the environment has been designed using natural materials.
The presence of natural loose-fill ‘safety surfaces’ such as sand, add considerably to the play opportunities in a play area. Though rubber safety surfaces have become the norm, these surfaces have no play value in themselves. These have now become the standard safety surfacing, largely for reasons of maintenance ‘convenience’ and a preconception on the part of users (generally parents and carers) that play areas have to be ‘neat and tidy’.
Loose materials on a site allow for creative and interactive play. Loose materials also provide scope for quieter, less active, social play – important; as it is well accepted that play consists of far more than running, jumping, and climbing (which is provided for largely by the equipment).
Many parents and carers have become used to the idea that children should be able to play without getting ‘dirty’. However most of us adults will remember the pleasure we had in getting ‘messy’ as children, playing with mud, sand, and water. Research shows that it is crucial to a child’s development that they should be allowed to play freely and even to get slightly dirty if they wish. So our new play area will allow them to do this.
The use of natural materials includes boulders to climb and sit on. The boulders have been chosen specially for their smooth rounded edges. Children find them very ‘tactile’ and as such they make positive additions to the play area.
We have included planting in the play area partly to help integrate the play space with the surrounding park. However the main reason to include planting in a play area is to introduce some ‘seasonal interest’ and to allow the appearance of the space to change throughout the year. There is considerable evidence that children find a play area that always looks the same 365 days a year boring, and complain that ‘it’s always the same’. However play spaces that have planting are always changing, with the passing of the seasons marked by flowers, autumn leaves, buds, etc.
Equipment
Children need to use play equipment which is challenging and which will allow themselves to stretch their abilities, therefore developing themselves physically and intellectually (a risk assessment has been undertaken at the design stage and prior to opening to the public). The design provides for a range of types of play activity, swinging, balancing, climbing, rocking, sliding, etc.
Feedback from two general public consultation events in 2005 was used in preparing a draft design for the playground, which was submitted as part of the stage 2 application to the Heritage Lottery Fund. Once funding was secured, a more detailed consultation exercise was undertaken using a questionnaire with photos of the proposed play equipment and space for additional comments. The play equipment was set out in 3 categories: young children's play, sand and water and older children’s play. The questionnaire was circulated to local schools and nurseries and just under 100 completed responses were received (of which 10 were from parents of under 5s). As a result of this survey a number of changes were made to the design: more swings were added (10 compared to 8 in the old playground) and a zip wire was also included. Less popular items such as the wobble dishes and small building site were omitted to make space.
Prior to opening, the playground underwent an independent safety inspection by the Child Accident Prevention Trust (CAPT) who confirmed that the playground was fit for purpose and safe to be opened to the public. CAPT are a national child safety organisation equivalent to RoSPA and the inspection was carried out by one of the UK’s most experienced play inspectors, Rob Wheway.
Mr Wheway said: “The playground has been deliberately designed to be challenging and exciting for children. Previously, I have been involved with lots of consultations on playgrounds and parents have often complained that playgrounds are too boring. The playground is different to what was in the park before, but it is not a dangerous playground. The equipment is not conventional, but there is nothing there that has not already been featured in other playgrounds before.
“Sand is used conventionally in playgrounds on the Continent, boulders are found naturally in the environment and on the beach and animals occur in any natural space.
Mr Wheway is one of the country’s leading children’s play consultants, with over 35 years experience working in play and has been inspecting play equipment for 17 years. He inspects hundreds of playgrounds each year throughout the country. Mr Wheway has also worked for ROSPA and other similar organisations.
In the new playground, all items of equipment that involve climbing have been designed to ensure that the start of any climb is suitably difficult. This in turn ensures that children who are able to climb to any height are suitably proficient at that height.
The sand surface is a suitable safety surface and conforms to BS EN 1177. It is suitable for the critical fall heights of the equipment around which it has been installed.
Cleanliness
The play area is designated a dog free area. RBBC carry out twice daily inspections of the playground and cleanliness of the sand is to be dealt with by Reigate and Banstead Borough Council as a maintenance issue.
Play for Under 5s
Items considered suitable for children under 5 years are as follows:
- Cradle Swings (now installed)
- Whirligigs
- Play Houses
- Sand snake
- Water Play
- See saw
David Yearley, RoSPA Play Safety Manager, has said: "If we make playgrounds too safe, children will find them boring and they will go to play in places which are much more dangerous. We must not remove the excitement from play.
“We need to see exciting and stimulating play areas with high play value. These will contribute to the physical and psychological development of the child and discourage children from playing in dangerous places such as railway lines, riverbanks and alongside roads. Play areas should be as safe as necessary, but not as safe as possible.
“Parents have to accept that children may get hurt while playing - more than 38,000 children are injured seriously enough on UK playgrounds each year to have to go to hospital. What we must do is try to ensure that those injuries are not too serious.”
Reigate & Banstead Borough Council
Town Hall
Castlefield Road
Reigate
RH2 0SH
01737 276000
Reigate and Banstead Borough Council is not responsible for the content of external sites.
