Issue - meetings

Report of the Executive Director of Place

To consider the above e-petition, bearing 115 e-signatures which has been submitted by Councillor Julia Lepoidevin, a Woodlands Ward Councillor, who lives in the vicinity of Juniper Drive and has been invited to the meeting for the consideration of this item.

The Cabinet Member considered a report of the Executive Director of People that responded to an e-petition received from Councillor Lepoidevin, the petition organiser and a Woodlands Ward Councillor who attended the meeting to present the petition, regarding the condition of the play equipment at the Juniper Drive play area.

The e-petition, bearing 115 signatures, requested that the City Council updated and replaced play equipment in the park area at Juniper Drive/Woodridge Avenue as the equipment had not been updated for a number of years. The site included a number of items of play equipment designed to cater for the younger age group as well as some informal sports provision including a goal post and a basketball hoop. There were also a number of infrastructural elements associated with the play areas including fencing, tarmac paths and safer surfacing. The park was under control of the Parks Service within the Council’s Place Directorate. Play facilities in the City are inspected on a weekly basis and repairs/replacements are undertaken as and when to maintain the equipment in a safe and usable condition.

Councillor Lepoidevin attended the meeting to present the petition and informed the Cabinet Member that the condition of the play area had been the subject of complaints from local residents at Woodlands Ward Forum meetings for a number of years; the updating of the equipment was long overdue; the area was well used; and would be missed if no longer available. Residents considered that access to the nearest park, Allelsey Park, was too great a distance from the existing facility and were concerned at having to cross a major road to access it. A local residents group, recently established in the area, had indicated that they would provide any assistance they could to support improvements to Juniper Drive.

RESOLVED that the Cabinet Member for Culture, Leisure, Sports and Parks:

1)  Notes that adequate play provision is located in Allesley Park, 600 metres from Juniper Drive.

2)  Agrees that updating and replacing the play equipment at Juniper Drive is unsustainable in the present financial climate  

3)  Agrees that the play equipment, apart from the basketball hoop and goal, be removed from Juniper Drive and that any serviceable items be reused where practicable and that the area be reinstated to grass.

4)  Agrees that the City Council works with the local residents group to explore external funding opportunities for the replacement of the play equipment at the Juniper Drive Play Area and that a progress report on this work be submitted to a future meeting of the Cabinet Member.