COMHAIRLE CONTAE ÁTHA CLIATH THEAS
SOUTH DUBLIN COUNTY COUNCIL

South Dublin County Council Crest

MEETING OF RATHFARNHAM/TEMPLEOGUE-TERENURE AREA COMMITTEE

Tuesday, October 14, 2014

HEADED ITEM NO. 20

UPDATE ON THE PLAY SPACE PROGRAMME 2014 - 2018

 The purpose of this report is to review The Five Year Play Space Programme 2014 – 2018 that was approved by the Council at the end of 2013. It is now important to:

We are calling our local play areas “play spaces” rather than playgrounds.  We feel that the term playground gives an impression only of a collection of formal play items with safety surfacing in an enclosed area. The word Playground often has a connotation in the minds of residents with anti social activity.

The play spaces will be far more informal, often without formal play equipment or fencing and often not concentrated in one location. They can also be referred to as Natural Play Spaces.

For Neighbourhood and Regional play areas the term playground still applies and they will have a combination of both natural play opportunities and formal equipment.

The Council is proposing to build predominantly natural play spaces as part of its playground Construction programme in local areas. Natural Play can be defined as, ‘The freedom to access, explore and engage with the natural environment with the primary purpose of having fun’.

A natural play space is an area where children can play with natural elements such as sand, water, rocks, wood and living plants. There may also be some formal play items. 

Today, many children lack the time and opportunity to engage in natural unstructured play. Planned, adult-coordinated activities during and after school, as well as electronic games and television, limit a child's ability to engage in exploration and free expression. Research indicates that this ability, along with access to natural settings, is critical to children's development in every major way: intellectually, emotionally, sociallyand physically. Benefits of increased unstructured free play and access to natural areas include improved concentration & impulse control, emotional coping and stress reduction, stimulation of creativity, reduced symptoms with ADD and ADHD, and improved motor coordination.

Natural play spaces focus on creating settings to enable the type of play most important to our youngest children: social play (pretending) and constructive play (building).  Natural Playgrounds encourage children to use their imaginations while simultaneously experiencing the smells, textures and wonders of the natural world. Natural Playgrounds are typically very safe because they include few or no tall structures and no equipment with moving parts. In addition, natural Playgrounds can be relativelyinexpensive to build by usingnatural materials and avoiding often costly catalogue structures.

One of the lessons learned during the consultation process is that the process takes much longer than was originally anticipated and is not simply “a once only meeting” exercise.

The consultation process involved initial scoping with key players in each area including the Elected Members, Community Groups and Residents Associations.  These scoping exercises invariably lead to more than one meeting before the full consultation meeting. In virtually every case residents requested a design to be provided so that they could understand what exactly was being proposed. The requirement to have a design worked out is especially important where residents are opposed to the provision of traditional playgrounds due to a history of vandalism and anti social behaviour. It has to be clearly demonstrated how our proposals will address the specific site conditions in each given location.

In many cases the proposals have been accepted as they were natural play spaces rather than “playgrounds”.

After the issues of contention have been identified it is then possible to proceed to a full public consultation meeting and to which the Elected Members are also invited.  If the proposals are rejected at this stage there is no point in proceeding any further with the proposal. If the proposal is passed at the public meeting it still cannot be taken for granted that the proposal will proceed. It has been our experience that residents who have not attended the public meetings often raise objections afterwards. This has lead to numerous follow-on meetings and design amendments.

The issue of anti social behaviour is a very real concern in virtually all parts of the County.  Residents in areas where anti social behaviour is not a major issue are concerned that a play space would attract it.  in other areas residents feel that it would increase the anti social behaviour levels. 

Following agreements with stakeholders each approved site has gone to tender. In each case the tender analysis has been done with the participation of local stakeholders. This gives people an appreciation of the issues involved and keeps local people involved in the decision making process. This has been a very successful procedure and it is proposed to continue it in subsequent years.

In order to expedite the 2015 programme it is proposed to commence consultation on this programme in November 2014 and after the Elected Members have been briefed on the current programme through the Area Committee meetings.

A total of 10 sites throughout the county were included in the 2014 Play Space Programme.  Two other sites at Hermitage Park in Lucan and Ballycragh Park in Firhouse were separately funded by the Department of Children and Youth Affairs. One site at Tymon Park (Tymon North side) is separately funded through the Council’s Capital Programme.

Of the 13 sites listed contracts have been issued for 8 sites, 1 site is out for tender, 1 is ready to go to tender and it was not possible to reach agreement on the remaining 3 sites.

The listing of the programme by Electoral Area has now been revised to match with the new Local Electoral boundaries and the proposed play spaces for Rathfarnham and Templeogue – Terenure Electoral Areas are shown in the tables below. A review of progress in the 2014 programme is summarised below

 RATHFARNHAM Electoral Area

 

Location Type Proposed timescale
Woodstown, Knocklyon (substituted for Marian Road). Opposed by residents Local 2014
Whitechurch open space. Opposed by residents Local 2014
Marian Road (not to be progressed and substituted by Woodstown) Local 2015
Dargle Wood Local 2015
Longwood/Stonepark Abbey Rathfarnham Local 2015
Westbourne Lodge Local 2016
Elkwood Local 2016
Kiltipper Park Regional 2017
Boden Park Local 2017
Prospect Manor, Stocking Lane Local 2018
Dodder Park Road Local 2018

  

 TEMPLEOGUE - TERENURE Electoral Area

 

Location Type Proposed timescale
Beechfield Park, Walkinstown Local 2014 to commence November 2014
Tymon Park Limekiln Neighbourhood 2016
Glendown Park Local 2016
Firhouse Park Local 2016
Delaford Local 2016
Westbourne Lodge Local 2017
Idrone, Knocklyon Local 2017
Greenhills Park Neighbourhood 2017
Mount Carmel Neighbourhood 2017
Tymon Park Willington Regional 2018
Orwell Park Local 2018
Perrystown Local 2018
Carrigwood Local 2018
Hunterswood Local 2018
Cherryfield Park Neighbourhood 2018

Woodstown Estate- Not possible to reach agreement on site

Whitechurch- Not possible to reach agreement on any site.

As no agreement was possible in the Rathfarnham Electoral Area part of the funding allocation was transferred to the play space at Ballycragh Park. This will allow for the budget for this location to be in line with the budgets for the other agreed locations throughout the county.

Beechfield Park-Contract issued and works scheduled to commence at the end of November.