The Playground - Community Update
31 October 2010
Relocation of the playground is on hold until a date for the development of the Health Centre is known.
31 May 2009
The consultation with the children regarding the relocation of the playground has concluded and their views will be fed into the overall decision process about where the playground should be positioned.
31 January 2009
The consultation using the medium of play on the relocation of the playground has been arranged for mid to late February; the snow meant that these events had to be re-scheduled.
31 December 2008
The school children of Blaenavon will be consulted on suitable sites for relocating the playground currently situated on the recreation ground. A number of suggested alternative sites have been made and these will be shared with the children for their view. The consultation will be undertaken using the medium of play and experienced play workers.
30 November 2008
The consultation and work required to relocate the playground will be progressed once the planning application process for the Primary Care Resource Centre has been finalised. The council is reluctant to relocate the playground unnecessarily or prematurely.
31 March 2008
In the last update, we advised that the children of Hillside school felt that the best place to relocate the playground was the top of the green nearest to St Paul’s Church.
When we consulted with the children of St Peters school, they felt that either the green nearest St Paul’s Church or the green near to Bridge Street would be a good location to relocate the playground. None of the children consulted with felt that relocating the playground to the park would be a good move.
We have now also had the view from our operational services department who felt that the best location for the playground would be the green near Bridge Street because it is a good level site that previously housed a playground.
They felt that the parcel of land between the houses on Llanover Road was too steep and would make levelling the ground difficult and costly. They felt that the green nearest to St Paul’s Church was too close to the road and this could lead to safety issues for the children.
We intend to consult further on this and will keep you apprised through these updates.
29 February 2008
We met with two of the Ward Councillors in early February to discuss complaints they had received about access to the playground which sits just behind where the recreation centre used to stand.
In order to protect public safety, hoardings and fences had been erected while the recreation centre was being demolished and these fences had made it very difficult for people to access the playground.
The fencing has now been removed and we have discussed putting in a temporary path from the Car Park to enable easier access, especially for those with pushchairs.
We had looked at providing a temporary path from Llanover Road but were advised that the gradient of this hill was too steep for us to do so safely. So, the plan is to install a temporary footpath from the car park.
However, inevitably, the playground will need to be re-located within the next 12 months and we’re thinking about whether spending money on a temporary footpath when the playground will be moved in any event is a good use of public money.
Obviously, we want to ensure that children and families can use the facility in the interim so this is a difficult balance to strike and we’re still working on it.
In terms of where the playground can go, 4 suggestions were made by the Ward Councillors:
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Alongside the other playground in the park;
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At the top of the green near St Paul’s Church;
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On the green strip of land between Varteg Road and Bridge Street (there used to be a playground here at one time); or
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On the patch of land just down from the current playground between the houses.
We’re looking at these sites to see how suitable they may be or not and will be consulting with key people in the town and in particular children, on where they think the playground can best be placed.
We’ve already consulted with the children of Hillside Primary and they felt that the top of the green by St Paul’s Church would be best but no decisions have been made on this yet.