Swinging into action over playparks
South Lanarkshire Council has announced big-money plans to renew and refresh 233 play parks over the next five years.
Funding to bring them up to an appropriate standard came from the Scottish Government.
A total of £10 million of funding was distributed across all local authorities in 2021/2022 and 2022/2023 and South Lanarkshire received £594,000 – rising to £3.58 million by 2026.
The council has completed an initial exercise to identify costs to bring all 233 play areas up to an appropriate standard rather than full renewal, and this has identified a funding shortfall of around £620,000 to carry out the work.
Due to the shortfall in funding, the council has considered a strategic place-based approach to allocate specific investments that could see targeted investment in priority play areas. This will be developed in collaboration with communities and councillors, building on consultation already undertaken and delivering investment based on local priorities.
Given the multi-year funding from the Scottish Government until 2026, the council has launched a programme which will see play parks in specific localities across South Lanarkshire being renewed yearly. From 2023 to 2024, the council will target Larkhall, Rutherglen and Cambuslang playparks – refurbishing 31 in total.
Between 2024 and 2025, Hamilton, Bothwell, Uddingston, Blantyre and Strathaven will be targeted, with 36 sites being renovated.
In 2025 to 2026, the council will target the 65 play parks across East Kilbride.
And from 2026 to 2027, 101 play areas across Clydesdale will be targeted.
In order to follow through with the project, the council has recruited one temporary landscape architect and there are a further three permanent landscape architects who can help.
Councillor David Shearer (Clydesdale West), welcomed the plans, but asked if the council could do more in terms of funding. He said: “Given that this programme is funding that we’ve got from the Scottish Government, will we be using planning gain from developments to get a better bang for our buck? If we use that in conjunction with this money we could renovate the parks to a higher level rather than spreading our money thinly.”
Council officers confirmed that planning gains received from large housing developments in the area could be used to renovate play parks.