COMHAIRLE CONTAE ÁTHA CLIATH THEAS
SOUTH DUBLIN COUNTY COUNCIL

South Dublin County Council Crest

MEETING OF CLONDALKIN AREA COMMITTEE

Wednesday, October 15, 2014

HEADED ITEM NO.18

REPORT:

CLONDALKIN ELECTORAL AREA - 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:

 TERMS - PLAY SPACES AND PLAYGROUNDS

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.

 NATURAL PLAY SPACES - LOCAL

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.

 CONSULTATION PROCESS

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.

 

 THE FIVE YEAR PLAY SPACE PROGRAMME 2014 - 2018

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 Clondalkin are shown in the table below. A review of progress in the 2014 programme is summarised below

  

 CLONDALKIN ELECTORAL AREA

Rathcoole Park Local 2014 Works Commencing mid November
Knockmitten Park Neighbourhood 2014 Works Commencing mid November
Letts Field, Neilstown Local 2015  
Quarryvale Park Local 2015  
Newcastle Neighbourhood 2015  
Ashwood estate Local 2016  
Springbank Cottages Saggart Local 2016  
Collinstown Park Local 2016  
Grand Canal Park Local 2017  
Corkagh Park Regional 2017  
Cherrywood Park Local 2018  
St Cuthberts Park Local 2018  
Corkagh Park Local 2018  

 

Rathcoole Park

Following extensive consultation with locals in Rathcoole a design brief was formulated and agreed with local stakeholders. A tender was issued which asked the companies to design a scheme which made optimum use of the existing topographical features of the park i.e hills, trees, planting, water, and flat areas. The tenders were then analysed in conjunction with local stakeholders. The chosen design contains many very unique features including a sand pit extending over both sides of the river with a connecting bridge, a 6m long hill slide, planting, boulders and logs for climbing, swings, a willow tunnel, logs and even a maze. The features are spread out throughout the park but are kept back from adjoining residences.

The contract has been issued and works are due to commence mid November. Most works will be completed by end October with the exception of one element which will be installed prior to Christmas.

Additional Funding of €15,000 was received for the project from the Department of Children and Youth Affairs. This funding will be used to add features not present in the winning design including two additional water crossings and a boulder climbing area to reach the top of the slide.

Knockmitten

Contract issued and works to commence mid November. Works will take approx 4 weeks.

The chosen site is the Community Garden attached to Knockmitten Community Centre. This is an enclosed space with a committed group of local gardeners. The Community Garden Committee agreed to allow us to use the site in exchange for extending the garden and carrying out some upgrades to increase accessibility and usability of the space.

The design combines the functions of a play space and a Community Garden. It will be very much a multi generational space. It has been designed to appeal to a wide variety of users. For children there are swings, a climbing frame, musical instruments, a large sand pit, water pump and water play equipment. There are plenty of places to run and hide and even a stage to perform on. The paths have been made fully wheelchair accessible and there will be planted spaces to sit and enjoy the garden. There are benches, ornamental water features and a rose garden. It is anticipated that the garden will be a central feature in the community and groups can be catered for in the communal pizza oven and BBQ. The fencing, paths and play infrastructure is being installed by a playground company. The construction of the pizza oven and bbq will be undertaken as community workshops organised in conjunction with the Community Centre. The planting will be carried out by local volunteers under the guidance of a horticulture student from UCD. The planting will be a mix of fun plants for children, sensory plants, ornamental specimens and edible plants.

This is a highly anticipated project locally and the high level of local input will give people ownership of the space and hopefully ensure its success.