What does your park have?

[SwingAndRoundabout]

I am working with a local community group on new facilities for our local park and recreation ground.

At the moment, there are football pitches, a cricket pitch, a skate ramp, tennis and basketball courts, as well as a children's playground and a cafe.

There is a lot of discussion about what else we could put in place. We have a fund to pay for facilities. We have a few ideas for additional facilities, maybe outdoor gym equipment or a splash/paddling pool. I have views on these options but am trying to leave those aside for this thread.

Looking for inspiration for other options we could consider. What is there at your local park? Or what would you really like there to be?

Thanks in advance!

How can provision for those with additional needs be accommodated or improved?

Can all children use the playground?

A sensory space perhaps?

Trees, for shade and shelter. I spent seven years in a bare playground in Leicestershire where I was either freezing or sunburnt.

Ours have all those plus splash pad, outdoor gym, bowling green, bandstand.

Most of that stuff will be dominated by men/boys. As would gym equipment. Get something for girls; I think there are some campaigners who design park stuff to appeal to girls.

Ps not saying girls shouldn't play football/crocket. Just that they will probably be pushed out of those spaces.

Www.makespaceforgirls.co.uk

I seen somewhere about parks being covered / partial covered. To keep the sun off in the summer snd rain the rest of the year

Please make sure there is lots of space for nature. So lots of trees for shade and planting for bulbs and shrubs so there can be wildlife. Maybe something like a willow tunnel, sensory garden or little maze hedge type thing.

I also agree with a previous poster about making the playground accessible. So having accessible roundabout/swing/ramp onto the climbing frame/things that make noise etc so it can be enjoyed by anyone.

https://www.makespaceforgirls.co.uk/

Wheelchair accessible playground equipment if you don't have any - and if you do, make sure anything you add is accessible/ has accessible aspects.
Flooring is important, mulch is often claimed to be accessible, but obviously isn't if you've ever tried to push something with wheels through it.
A wheelchair swing or the plastic moulded adaptive swing, a ramped play structure, a roll on roundabout... Lots of options, look at therecessproject on instagram for ideas (it's in the USA but the equipment is the same). Worth considering too that wheelchair users are parents and need to be able to take their kids to the playground, as well as wheelchair or walker using kids themselves.
Seriously, disabled kids have so few options for play, if you have the funding, please do this.

We have lots of trees and benches. It is surrounded by woodland. There are buggy/wheelchair paths through a lot of it, including along the river and round ponds.

Going to double check how sensory the play area is, but from memory, it is pretty good and a lot is accessible. Like most playgrounds it is predominantly for younger children, but does have some equipment for older kids.

The football and cricket clubs all have very active female sections (trying to avoid being outing here, but I am a participant). But I am keen that we do something that appeals across as wide an audience as possible, so this would be worth more exploration for sure.

I will admit I am not convinced that a water based facility is the way to go. They appear to be very high maintenance, and of limited use a lot of the year as well as being for a pretty narrow age bracket. The others locally all have changing facilities, which we do not have.

We have loads of these inflated bouncy mattress things in our local playgrounds and green spaces. They are extremely popular with boys and girls of a wide age range and are real social hubs for the kids round here!

After some quick research, I think they are called jumping pillows in English..

Our local park has off the ground bbq pillars which are great in the summer and very well used.

Ours has flood lights around the basketball and tennis courts. There is a big light switch you hit and they stay on for a period of time. Its used a lot, especially in winter when you might go to the park if its not too cold but its dark so you don't. The areas around the park are also very well lit.

How about a stage/dancing area, with prop posts for mobile phones so kids can record themselves?

We have a skateboard area, splash pool in the kids play area which includes climbing frames, INCLUSIVE SWIINGS AND ROUNDABOUTS THAT DISABLED CHILDREN CAN USE, etc., duck pond, community room that can be hired out, toilets IT NEEDS BETTER DISABLED TOILETS, a pagoda, plenty of open space.
I'd like a nature trail or a music garden.

You need decent, well-maintained toilets, including a disabled one & changing facilities. None of our parks have decent toilets round here, so our visits are limited.

Couldn't agree more about the toilets! The local council insist on keeping them locked because of vandalism. Which is enraging.

A drinking water tap is better than a splash area. The kids play under ours in heat waves and use it for water pistols etc, and runners and adults use it the rest of the year.

A lot of sports equipment can be dual use and then you can dot it around. Calisthenics frames are really just an old fashioned climbing frame with monkey bars. Concrete blocks make good benches and step up blocks. Flights of stairs are great for sitting and interval training. In our park the macho guys dominate the work out area, and the women improvise with trees, lampposts, blocks, benches etc in other parts. I see moving sports machines used a lot in the Med when I'm on holiday, mostly by older people on the sea front, but it's a bit cold and wet here and I suspect it needs a lot of maintenence. I don't fancy sitting on a cold wet metal seat!

The best thing about our park is that the lake is shallow so it's the first place to freeze locally and we skate there almost every winter. I don't think that's normal in the uk though!

Definitely need toilets. If you don't have them, those who walk or use public transport to get to the park simply won't go because they will have to be out for much longer than those who live a 5-10 min drive away and will definitely need the toilets if they have to spend 30+ mins each way to the park and at least an hour in the park.

My dream is that parks confine dogs and dog walking to a specific area away from walkers and kids.

That's an interesting point. Definitely toilets needed regardless, but doing some surveys to find out how people get to the park might change what they do. I've never ever been to a park out of walking distance. If I'm going to take transport (I don't have a car, but this applies when I was growing up with a car too) we'd go further afield to a tourist attraction, national trust, soft play, IKEA whatever for a day out. The needs of people who are using the park as a day out will be quite different to locals who use it for an hour to get some fresh air and could actually conflict.

Toilets which are accessible to all
Playground equipment which is accessible to all children
Seating area within the playground which is accessible to all
Dog free area for football games
Drinking fountains

Well maintained toilets definitely!! The splash parks are brilliant in my view I have 4 DC ages between 11&1 the one year old is a bit young yet but the others love them, None I've been to have changing rooms we just take them along in their bathing suits. The ones we visit are always popular in the summer months. Plenty of seating in appropriate places! it always annoys me when I go to parks and they have no seating close to the play equipment and it's equally annoying when there is not enough seating. Those jumping pillows look amazing!

Also several parks we visit have those outdoor gyms they hardly ever get used then they seize up which quite likely one day will cause injury they are not great in my opinion.