To want a playground on the local 'green'?

[surreygirl1987]

There is a large 'green' across the road (new build development area). It has benches, a community hall, and a path all around that kids ride their bikes and scooter on. It is also used as a local teen hangout and children also play ball games on there. There is no playground in the local area. I have two little boys and I would love for there to be a playground on the green. It is a very large space and a playground would take up a tiny proportion of it. How might I start enquiring if this might be a possibility? Who do I contact? Any advice gratefully received! Thanks!

The council, I'd imagine?

We fund raised for a playground for our village and went through the parish council. The tricky bit was not raising the funds for the equipment, it was working out how to pay for safety inspections and any necessary fixes.

Ask the council. If it is legally a “village green” then they may not be allowed to put anything on it.

You start by thinking about who will maintain it once built and talk to them. And by talking to the landowner if that is not the same person.

Finding the 100 k to build it is the easy bit.

Sounds very similar to where I live OP.

In our case the green area is still own and run by the building company that built the development.

If you contact the building company they will tell you if they still own the land or whether it's been passed into the ownership of the local council or perhaps is now owned by the company who manages your development.

The local council could probably give you the same information, or even the management company would probably be able to tell you.

I did it a very long time ago and it may have been slightly easier as it was already a playground but the equipment had been removed as it was unsafe. We had to contact the council to find out if we could do it in the first place, lots of back and forth on who would be responsible for maintenance down to how the bins would get emptied, everything had to be looked at and approved by the council. We set up a charity, a committee, had to have scheduled meetings and an agm, all members had to have a dbs check as it was for children even though there were no children involved, applied for grants and had fundraisers.
Getting the money and having it built was the easy part, the red tape, discussions with the council and getting everything agreed took about three years.

Check with the council....normally these small parts are paid for by the developer as part of the planning deal. But they may not go in until the estate is completely finished.

*parks

Thanks so much for all the info! That's absolutely brilliant - so helpful. I'll get cracking. I admit I hadn't even thought about half the things you mentioned! Thanks again!