Meander Valley Council sets decade-long playground strategy

Meander Valley councillors unanimously voted to approve its Eastern Play Space Strategy at their last meeting on June 11.

Created to provide strategic direction on existing play space areas and development of new ones, the strategy will cover Prospect Vale, Blackstone Heights and Hadspen until 2034.

The decision comes after the public were consulted via survey through April and May this year. The feedback and draft strategy was then presented to the council at a workshop on April 23.

With an emphasis on creating "a clear vision and principles", the 69-page plan aims to factor in changing demographics, connectivity and accessibility, among other factors.

Councillor Kevin House said it was an "extraordinary" document.

"The amount of work that's gone into it, I think is just amazing," he said.

"It's a 10-year plan to identify opportunities to more efficiently serve our communities in terms of play and recreational spaces.

"It also minimises the long term costs of maintaining those areas, so I think this is very prudent and well-considered."

The council's current playground assets hold a value of $952,000 for playgrounds only and $1,008,000 for all play spaces, with an annual operational and maintenance expenditure budget of $292,000.

After the 2021 census revealed that Prospect Vale has a larger proportion of teenagers than young children and Hadspen and Blackstone Heights have an even amount, Meander Valley is looking to make play spaces accessible to more people.

The new strategy is set to inform the council on upcoming works, with aims to improve the quality and variety of play spaces while reducing anti-social behaviour and providing economic benefits to the local community.

Councillor Anne-Marie Loader said the strategy's use of graphics made it accessible to people who may have difficulty reading.

"I applaud the fact that the community was able to have such robust input into this strategy, which is really fantastic," she said.

"Given that we're just becoming higher and higher density, our play spaces for young and old are really vital."