Minutes

It was agreed that all items be webcast as proposed.

Apologies were received from Councillors Munford and Vizzard.

Councillors Mrs Gooch and English substituted for Councillors Munford and Vizzard respectively.

The following Visiting Members attended the meeting with an interest in Item 7 on the agenda, Play Areas Review:

·  Councillor Ian Chittenden;

·  Councillor Jenni Paterson;

·  Councillor Cynthia Robertson;

·  Councillor Red Nelson-Gracie;

·  Councillor Mike Hogg; and

·  Councillor David Burton.

There were no disclosures.

It was resolved that all items be taken in public as proposed.

The Cabinet Member for Community and Leisure Services, Councillor John Wilson gave the Committee an overview of the Play Areas Review. He referenced the outcome of the recent Governance Review which was to retain the Cabinet System with enhanced Scrutiny and his decision to involve overview and Scrutiny at an early stage in the review of Play areas to encourage Member involvement.

Jason Taylor, Parks and Open Spaces Manager gave a presentation highlighting the outcomes of the Play Area Review and options going forward. He outlined the current situation:

•  119 Play Areas in Maidstone Borough;

•  69 belonging to MBC, 40 Parish Councils;

•  Green Spaces Strategy investment in 2005;

•  Replacement budget reduced to £100k;

•  Current budget will take 40 years to replace all of the MBC Play Areas; and

•  Play Areas last on average 15 years.

It was explained that the scoring system used to evaluate play areas addressed quality, accessibility and usage.  Play Areas were then colour coded green, amber and red according to their condition.  The number of green play areas had declined from 32 to 23 from April 2009 to January 2013 and the number of red play areas had risen from 19 to 27.

The objectives of the Play Area Review were:

•  To take a strategic look at play areas;

•  Ongoing scoring of play areas in the borough;

•  To look at the distribution of play areas;

•  To come up with recommendations and standards for future play provision;

•  To consider costs? and

•  To identify funding sources.

The findings of the review were:

•  That 51 out of 69 MBC Play Areas need or will need work within 5 years to reach/maintain green or amber standard.

•  That there is currently no set standard for play provision, i.e. “residents should live within X  miles of a good play area”.

•  There are some areas of potential over provision.

As a result of these findings 3 options were put forward:

1. No change in policy – maintain MBC Play Areas to current level- £250k year

2. Prioritise on 5 main play areas only - £100k year

3. Agree a borough wide strategic play provision standard

- based on the majority of residents being a maximum of 12 minutes walk from an amber or green play area

Further work had been undertaken to develop Option 3 which included the following:

•  Adopt 12 minute standard across the borough;

•  £1.8 million would be needed to get all MBC Strategically Important Play Areas to Green Standard;

•  20 MBC Non Strategically Important Play Areas would not be invested in;

•  Non Strategically Important Play Areas would be offered to Community Groups, Parish Councils;

•  MBC would offer support to these groups; and

•  If these play areas are not taken on, equipment would be removed when it needs repair and all equipment removed within 5 years.

Costings were provided for a 1 year and 5 year programme.  Members felt that  ...  view the full minutes text for item 84.

6.36 p.m. to 8.15 p.m.