Council play park development - do they need planning permission?

[MoragG]

I have been trying to establish if my local Council need planning permission to build a play park within an existing local park. The proposed location is around 5m away from our boundary fence, and we are very concerned about the likely noise and lack of privacy. However, I've not been able to find out if a development of this type needs planning permission or is covered by any kind of regulations or guidance. Can anyone help? We are in Scotland.

It really depends on lots of different factors - who owns the land, who is wanting to build on it, how big is the play park going to be?

The best people to contact are the planning department at your local council and ask them.

Thanks for replying. The Council own the park, and they are building the play park. I would rather have verification from someone independent, as the Council obviously have would an interest in telling us that planning permission is not needed.

I'm in England.

Am pretty certain that planning permission is not generally required for play equipment installation within an established park. Though there may be criteria relating to distance from boundary (but generally in terms of development, 2m is minimum distance).

I know that the recently installed play park in my local park didn't need planning permission, because was part of the group liaising with the council to ask for more equipment.

I do know that some people backing onto the park were critical of the installation of a basketball hoop and some benches because they were concerned that they would act as a magnet for unsociable behaviour (aka teenagers ). They were slightly resited out of goodwill but not through any legal requirement.

Certainly down here, the council has many different departments. So asking the planning team would be different to asking the parks and recreation folk.

If you asked the Local Planning Authority (yes, under council umbrella) they would tell you truthfully whether permission required or not.

I have dealt with applications for planning permission submitted by the Council, and determined by the Local Planning Authority (also under the council umbrella). Some permitted, some refused (rather less refused purely because there tended to be good pre application discussion prior to submission).

Thanks - that's really helpful. I will try the Planning Authority and hope they are not in collusion with the Parks department...

They won't be in collusion with the parks department, because they would get hammered by the Planning inspectorate at appeal if they applied the law incorrectly just because it was the council that was the applicant.

Planning permission is usually only needed for certain types of equipment - general if it's very high. Relatively few bits of kit fall into this category and therefore planning permission is rarely needed.

As it's already a park, these is also no change of use.

I have installed three playgrounds in partnership with the borough council (I'm a Parish Councillor) over the last ten years. Where residents have had reasonable concerns about noise, or anti-social behaviour, we have made modifications to plans in the spirit of good neighbourly-ness. There was no legal requirement to do so.

I'd suggest a site visit with whoever is responsible. Make sure you understand, first hand, what exactly they are proposing and why and then explain your concerns.

Once, I was asked to re-site some equipment for 11-14 year olds as residents were worried about potential gatherings after dark - only small numbers I hasten to add. The police were also consulted and they asked us to leave it in view of the houses and road as they believed it would discourage anti-social behaviour. We did follow police advice and, once it was in place, the concerned neighbours were fine and understood why we'd done what we did. For the record, there is no disturbance and it's worked out fine.

Thank you - this is very helpful indeed.