Councillors to take second look at Minehead play areas before any closure decisions

A SPECIAL group of town councillors has been set up to look at whether many of Minehead’s children’s play areas should be closed.

It follows doubts about the statistics gathered which showed some of the town council-owned play areas were hardly used, and a few not at all.

The usage figures underpinned a proposed new strategy which suggested closing seven of the 12 play areas.

The strategy was brought to the October 27 full council meeting, which saw a large number of residents attend to express opposition to play area closures after the issue was reported by the Free Press.

Later, misinformation and false claims about the Free Press reporting was spread on social media by a resident hiding behind the user name ‘Pann Shozz’.

The new strategy was aimed at allowing the council to focus its funds on the five most popular play areas, and to develop the King George V Playing Field, in Alcombe, as a youth hub.

Councillors were told on Tuesday (October 27) the usage figures had been collected during the time when Somerset Council was planning to devolve services and facilities to the town authority.

They were compiled from observations undertaken by a range of local residents and volunteers, including regular users of open spaces, such as walkers and dog walkers.

But, councillors said while the figures provided ‘a useful snapshot’ of usage, they doubted how much the statistics reflected overall use across the year.

Councillors suggested a town-wide user survey should be undertaken to gather more feedback from residents on which play areas they used and how often and what improvements they would like to see.

They said such engagement would provide valuable evidence to inform future investment decisions and help to identify gaps in current provision.

Councillors also wanted any future review to actively engage parents, schools, and young people to ensure facilities met the needs of the community.

They agreed a new play area policy should not about making closures, but rather an opportunity to develop a long-term strategy for improving play provision across Minehead.

However, councillors recognised play areas were costly assets to maintain and replace and accepted that future investment should be directed toward creating high-quality, accessible, and sustainable facilities which delivered the greatest benefits to children and families.

They agreed to set up an eight-member play area working group to consider the future provision of play facilities in Minehead and to carry out a further review with stakeholder engagement, and to develop recommendations for future investment and improvements which would be brought to a later full council meeting.

Councillors were told the sea front pirate ship and swing was consistently the most used of the town’s play areas, while Cross Farm Park and Irnham Recreation Ground showed strong, stable usage.

They also learned that the town council owned more than double the number of play areas of some other Somerset towns which had much larger populations.

The new policy also recommended expanding youth engagement and holiday provision through partnerships with organisations such as Minehead Eye.