Highland Council play park fund is a must, says Ross-shire councillor, amid mounting cost of repair and maintenance

THE responsibility for maintaining children's play parks must not be "dumped" by Highland Council on community groups.

That's the view of an Easter Ross councillor who says a "sticking plaster" approach to the challenge of providing and maintaining children's facilities is unacceptable as the region looks to recover from the far-reaching impact of the Covid-19 crisis.

Cromarty Firth ward councillor Maxine Smith made her remarks as Highland Council discussed the estimated £3.46m is required to repair and maintain 339 play parks which are currently owned and maintained by the local authority.

The importance of outdoor play areas for the physical and mental wellbeing of young people has been widely recognised.

Highland Council's communities and place committee chairman Cllr Allan Henderson says "a different approach to managing the play park estate is required in order to meet the scale of investment required".

He said: "There is a need to develop more local and community-led solutions. Members, staff and community bodies working together to solve problems, prioritise action and identify other resource possibilities would offer a better approach and there are some really good examples of this in some communities already. We will be recommending this approach to council in December and for play parks to be devolved to area committees for decisions."

He added: “The socio-economic impacts affecting communities because of the Covid-19 pandemic spans all age groups, including our young people. We have seen the resilience of Highland communities to help and support others during the pandemic and the willingness for collaborative partnerships. To help, we are recommending to council that ward funds are equalized up by investing another £240,000 for local choices on how best to support communities, whether that is with food support or other projects. So far there is £374,000 still available for groups to apply for, and this would increase by another £240,000 if the council agrees."

Cllr Smith said she was glad to see parks being taken seriously. But she said: "However they’re just putting a sticking plaster over the issue, which does not address sustainability. So they pass over some remaining Scottish Government Covid money to area committees that will amount to around £11,000 per ward. That will provide a few bits of equipment if we are lucky but what happens then? With no council maintenance budget within three years the parks will be needing help again, not to mention the ones we won’t reach."

In my own ward some of the community councils are dipping into their Windfarm funds to help match fund the monies we can offer but this does not address the future problems. It’s not fair to dump something so crucially important onto ‘community groups’. This is happening far too often.

Myself and Cllr Pauline Munro won a Council motion for a new play park fund and I want to see this implemented in next year’s budget as promised. This year can be forgiven but I’ll be looking eagerly for it in 2021.’

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