Major £5m plan to revamp playparks in the next decade

A MAJOR plan costing in the region of £5 million is set to transform the provision of play parks locally during the next decade.

Fermanagh and Omagh District Council has this week outlined plans which will see almost £4 million being spent on the construction of new play facilities and the upgrade and transformation of others.

Nearly £1 million will be spent on managing existing play parks as well as the delivery and development of the playparks.

It follows a major review over a year ago into the existing play amenities throughout the area which found that two-thirds of the current play parks fell below a ‘Play Value’ silver standard quality threshold.

At the moment, there are currently 110 play parks across the district, but only 25 per-cent of them offer at least one item of accessible equipment.

Now the council says it wants to identify play parks in need of upgrade, some to be transform to ‘Green Space’ areas, and to identify locations for new ones.

It is to take into account the number of children aged under 15 years in a particular area, as well as issues including deprivation, child poverty and households which have now access to a car.

The intention is to provide 97 playparks, three of which will be so-called ‘Destination Play Parks’ such as the Gortin Glens and the Grange in Omagh, six neighbour-equipped areas of play, including Dromore, Fintona and Carrickmore, and 88 local equipped areas of play.

However, there will be concern that a number of towns will have their playpark provision reduced.

In Fintona, the plan envisages that there will be a reduction in the number of play parks from four down to two, while Omagh, which currently has a total of 26 playparks, will have that number reduced to 17 as part of the strategy.

The study carried out by the council identifies Dromore, Fairywater and the Camowen wards as ones which, due to the changing demographics of their areas, will require the development of new playparks.

The strategy was due to be discussed and recommended for approval at a meeting of the council’s Environmental Services committee last night (Wednesday) and is due to be implemented between 2021 and 2030.