The
Playbuilder Projects
|
Update
29th September 2011
A reduced
grant of £365k was received from central government.
Councillors
decided that rather than spending the funds on all 11 sites and
achieving minor improvements, Leisure Services should
concentrate on improving 6 sites:
These six
were selected by considering the
numbers of children living within 400m of the sites, and
choosing those that are likely to be used by the highest number
of 8-13 year olds.
Regular
project updates
are provided online via the links above.
|
The
Funding
In September 2008 Leisure
Services, together with Children and Young People's Services (CYPS),
submitted a bid to the then Department for Children, Schools and Families
(superseded on 12 May 2010 by the Department for Education) for 'Wave 2 Playbuilder' funding.
As with all government grants
there are strict criteria to be met and the requirement that project
proposals and management be approved by
Play England who administered the fund on behalf of the DCSF.
The first step toward achieving
the necessary approvals was the production of a
Project Plan, submitted to Play England
March 2009:
The success of the bid was announced in April
2009, when Borough of Poole was awarded
more than £1 million for the improvement of 22 play
areas for the 8-13 year age range, over a two
year period.
Poole has more than 40 play areas,
and selection of the 22 for improvement
was based primarily on an in-depth assessment of the condition
and play value of the existing facilities.
The first priority of each project was to identify and
talk with school children, other users, neighbours and other local interest
groups to establish their needs, wishes and any concerns.
 Year 1
Poole was awarded £525,487 in Year 1 (2009/2010),
together with
an associated revenue funding
of £26,918.
Following a lengthy consultation and design period,
eleven play areas were completed by May 2010.
Year
2
In July 2010
the Secretary
of State for Education announced that the Department of
Education needed to identify savings from a number of capital budgets
in 2010-2011, including the Playbuilder budget.
Local authorities were told to avoid incurring costs
in relation to the Playbuilder grant with immediate effect, and that
meant the Borough of Poole had to suspend all work on the 11 Year 2
Playbuilder sites until the financial situation was clarified in
November.
In November 2010
the Council received a letter advising that
Poole would receive the reduced amount of £370,000 for Year 2
projects, £222,000 less than originally expected. It was
not, however, ring-fenced for play so the Council had authority to
decide how it was spent.
The Borough of Poole is very committed to
children's play provision and has fully supported the Playbuilder
project. At the same time, however, the Government cut the
funding to many other important projects so the Council needed to
carefully consider where children's play came in its list of
priorities.
Prior to the instruction from
postpone further work on Playbuilder projects designs had been drawn up in consultation with residents and young
people [more].
|
