What makes a perfect playground?

[yknaps]

I'm wondering about crowd-funding / fundraising to improve the playground facilities in my local park and interested in people's thoughts on what makes an amazing playground.
(And if anyone has any experience crowdfunding for this kind of thing, please share your experience!)

Decent facilities for disabled children
Sand pit
Mud kitchens
Those soft spongey floors
Divide into 2 sides: under 5's and over 5's and equip each side appropriately

Rules/extras if not already in place:

No bikes/scooters
Be fully fenced in
No smoking sign!!
If pets allowed, have dog litter bags and bin

Monkey bars - they’re the most used thing in the school playground, always a queue for both sets.

Lots of swings.

Table tennis table (bring your own bat and balls) also works really well - it’s lovely to see adults playing with kids and this seems to prompt it.

Challenging equipment for older kids which is designed so little kids can’t access it and end up hurting themselves (though even then, you see some parents hoisting them up).

Make Space For Girls are a new charity that can advise on making outdoor spaces attractive to older girls, who tend to stop using outdoor spaces more than boys who are more likely to use things like skate parks.

There are loads of grants available for outdoor play equipment. It takes quite a lot of effort to trawl the internet for them and write all the bids but my goodness it's worth it when the playground opens and the community loves it! I did this so feel free to PM me with any questions.

a chute with stairs so that toddlers can crawl up so you do t have to keep lifting them too the top.
Also more than one baby swing!
The parks next to me are clearly crap!

In terms of a good playground the best thing to do is run Q&A/consultation sessions within your local community. With a range of ages, stages and users. The answers will often depend on the local preferences, the space, the makeup of people. Don't just do one round and that's it. Do continuous engagement e.g. form a committee, post to local FB groups etc.

Came on to encourage you to look at Make space for girls - if you contact them they may be able to point you towards funding etc too.

I can recommend the one at West Bay for having lots to do in a busy park. There was stuff to go along so that lots of children could use it.

Northampton has a big park with lots of equipment. They kept the old style stuff as well as the new.

stuff for bigger kids - mini zip wires, climbing walls, challenging frames. my 10yo's eyes still light up if she sees a playground, but often there's little to nothing for bigger ones. It's a shame really, as most under 12s I know love all that stuff, and the likes of Go Ape are not affordable for more than an occasional treat.

Apparently a grass field and a concrete drainage tube with a penis drawn on was adequate for a park when we were young. That was it.

I still like the trim trails with balance beams and ropes and tyres....and posts to climb round.

Trails that encourage balance and agility. Children flow through them so they can take a large capacity without the queues that you get for slides/ swings. They tend to attract a broad age range too.
Tyntesfield (Nat Trust) has a simple one that works well.

There are a lot of play areas that are too specific to a narrow range of ages.

Accessible equipment is improving. A large playground I know has a seated swing and open roundabout that a wheelchair can be rolled on to (and a very blind pirate ship perfect for losing young children... after making the mistake of taking a 3yo & 18mo and them splitting in opposite directions at high speed, they were 4 & 6 before I braved going there solo again!) On the other hand now they're bigger, some "dens" are good for imaginative play.

Take a look at this project - doing excellent work on playgrounds for girls! makespaceforgirls.co.uk/

Some big stuff for little kids to clim away from the big kids, DD is 2 and tiny but loves to climb but being in with the huge school kids isn't great for her

Water for summer

"Natural" play equipment, boulders, logs, hills, planted dens etc.

Bike parking that can be seen from all around, i cycle everywhere and don't really like to leave the incredibly expensive and interesting bikes where I can't see.

Clear sight lines so I can see where my toddler disappeared to

Toilets would be amazing

One with benches you can sit on with a view of the whole playground, or at least the exits - much less stressful when you are trying to watch multiple children.

You need to get the landowner on board, presumably your town/parish council, but depends where you live.

It's a fairly slow process, you've got to get the council on board, then they need to decide on a budget - they may well have money in the budget to replace playground equipment or be able to access some money/grants for it. Then put out a tender thing, often best to see what the playground manufacturers come up with. Hold a consultation. We used to go into the nearest school/nursery before and after for suggestions then feedback on designs and favourite pieces of equipment. (Big slide, trampoline but vandals like setting fire to them sadly and zip wire always very popular) Then decide which one is best. It needs to be the heavy duty stuff that will last many years.
I joined the local town council in 1999 basically because I wanted to improve the play facilities in our town. Achieved precisely nothing in 4 years as a youngster in my 30s surrounded by retired old men who believed they were the most important people in town. Persuaded to go back on in 2011 in a push to get those entrenched fools out of office. Succeeded in getting 6 out of the 7 play areas either completely replaced or significantly refurbished plus a new skate park. So I do kind of know what I'm on about although not a councillor any more. Just a bit of a shame my DDs were long past the point they'd benefit from any of it.

Thought that might be helpful, sorry it's long...
Best way is to have zones, a bit for the little ones and another area for the older ones. Painting road lines on the tarmac was a winner (that was a suggestion from one of the council groundsmen) and yes a fence to keep the dogs out and the bolters in should be a foregone conclusion. If that needs replacing, it's more expense though.

A coffee stand and a toilet!

Toilets!! Cafe is always a great bonus! A good mix of equipment for young and older kids.

I've just been involved with this with our local really white playground. We had Romulo through hoops with planning. End criteria - accessible to all, fenced off from dogs, needed to suit all ages so pkayframes, bucket swings, normal swings, baby swings, wheelchair accessible roundabouts, up and over hill type things, zip wires small climbing frame with slide, larger wooden frame, assault course.

Toilets and coffee would have been pushing it 😂

50k raised by the community in various ways, council put in 15k.

Jesus my spelling, sorry.

Really white playground, jump through hoops, you get the jist...

I agree with a lot of what has already been said

1 ) benches are really important
2) zip wires (preferably 2) are v popular with kids
3) toddler equipment that 1-2 year olds can do. The best I’ve seen is still fun for 4-5 year olds but is accessible for the very littlest ones. We’ve got a tower at ours that 2 year olds can manage well because of the design.
4) trampolines seem to work well but I think they need to be big enough to work. I’ve seen some that are a bit hazardous as they’re so small and surrounded by concrete.
5) tunnels are super popular wherever I’ve been.
6) think about the placement of swings. It’s much easier if you’ve got a toddler and older one if you can run between two sets and push them together.

Have a look at the new(ish) playground at the wisely. It’s been designed really well.

Baby swings, normal swings, big bucket swing and wheelchair swing.
Climbing frames of different sizes.
Zip wire.
Tunnels, logs, rocks to clamber on.
Trampolines.
Roundabout.
Seesaw.

Only one entrance to the park. A mix of park equipment to suit different ages. Seats actually facing the playground equipment (we have a local one that points outside of the park, like you can't bear to look after your kids anymore).

Oh and slides made out of a material that doesn’t scorch children on a hot day and things set at the right height. One of the playgrounds near us has the baby swings set so high it’s too hard for lots of the grandparents to lift little ones into the swings. I’ve seen people struggle every time I’ve been there.

Enough stuff for the 6-10 is age group. Our local playground is a really good size but for this age group there's only an undercover slide which my ds hates (he loves slides, just not undercover ones), and a climbing net that's rocket shaped but people constantly shake it so he thinks he'll fall off.

One of the best playgrounds we've been to is by the car park at west bay.

@Apeirogon

I read a really interesting article about how it's important for children's development to include some slightly "risky" play items. Apparently in the US they've gone down the route of making playgrounds as safe as possible - with the outcome that the kids find them a bit boring.

I totally agree with this. I want my children to be able to climb and take risks in an environment with a soft floor. They have updated a lot of the local parks recently and a lot of the equipment is too safe IMO.