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Planning for open space

Open space planning, especially for children's use, should be aimed at providing for the wide range of every-day play needs of local children, (as well as the wider population) and at complementing the play opportunities available to them in their everyday lives.

Councils are encouraged to take a broad view of provision for play and recreation in public spaces. Play equipment areas and mown grass, cannot alone provide all that children need, and it is unreasonable to expect this to be possible.

The challenge for local government authorities is to how best to provide for the wide range of children's play and recreation needs, in the context of the open space system and the needs of other groups in the community.

The following questions need to be asked:

Children as a significant population

Municipal provision for children is significant because childhood experiences appear to have an important impact upon children's future development into adults.

Implications for planning

The population of children living in municipalities will have important implications for both present and future provision of play and recreation opportunities. Provision for children younger than ten years is important immediately, but there is also a strong requirement to provide now for young teenagers and this will remain important as the younger groups grow up. Teenagers are already the subject of community complaints about them 'loitering' in parks and around shops, and the needs of f his group need to be carefully discussed with the teenagers themselves.

More information

Please download the files listed below from the members area. The links underneath will take you to the members log in page or alternatively if you are already logged in straight to the link. For most of the files you will need to have Acrobat Reader installed which is free to download from adobe.

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