Project description D07
Web page: www.brent.gov.uk
The London
Borough of Brent may be best known to Americans as the site of the new Wembley
Stadium. That major construction project
has been the impetus for a variety of progressive planning efforts. This year’s project deals with different
issues but continues to reflect the Borough’s forward-looking planning
perspective.
The Borough has sponsored a
range of planning-related projects; some are listed at http://www.wpi.edu/cgi-bin/Interactions/search.cgi?s=full&sponsor=Brent,%20London%20Borough%20of
and http://www.wpi.edu/cgi-bin/Interactions/search.cgi?s=full&sponsor=Borough%20of%20Brent
The Planning Service
Brent House
Wembley
Middx.
HA9 6BZ
Web site: www.brent.gov.uk
Proposer's
name and contact information
Sarah
Ho
Telephone No.: 44 (0)20 8937 5318
Fax No.: 44 (0)20 8937 5207
E-Mail:
Background
Play is an
important element to the growth and development of children. Through play, children develop confidence and
skills to become healthy and independent adults. While play is important, it is recognized
that there is considerable deficiency in children’s play provision in the
Borough. This is particularly pertinent
for Brent, as it has a relatively young population with 25% under the age of
19yrs (Brent’s population is currently 263,464 (2001 Census). It also has a high fertility rate compared to
most other London Boroughs which accounts for the high level of 0-9 year olds.
Planning
for play is an important issue that can be addressed through the planning
system. Presently
child play space provision is currently addressed in the Unitary Development
Plan 2004 under Chapter 10 Open Space,
Sport and Recreation. Policy OS18 Children’s Play Areas require
large-scale developments to make provision for, or financial contributions
towards, children’s play areas. This can
be viewed online http://www.brent.gov.uk/planning.nsf
and by following the Unitary Development Plan link.
However, under a new legislation change in 2004, the
Council is now producing a new development plan, known as the Local Development
Framework (LDF). This system requires
the production of a series of documents which can be produced and updated
individually. Ultimately for Brent, this
is an opportunity to develop new policy and incorporate a broad spatial
approach, taking into account other policies and plans from a wide range of interests
and stakeholders. Brent is currently
consulting on its first LDF document, being the Core Strategy – Preferred
Options, which can also be found on the Planning Service website by following
the Local Development Framework link. The
strategy plans to develop in 5 key growth areas, and for a population growth of
up to 28,000 by 2017.
Play space policies should be supported by a Local
Assessment of play areas, in line with Planning Policy Guidance 17 Planning for Open Space, Sport and
Recreation (PPG17) and Assessing
Needs and Opportunities: A Companion Guide to PPG 17 which can be found on
the Department for Communities and Local Government website http://www.communities.gov.uk/index.asp?id=1143926
. While parts of this have been carried
out, an assessment of all elements of play has not been fully completed.
The Council has produced a Play Space Strategy
2005-2008 which addresses different types and provision for play space across
disciplines, and identifies key issues and findings from consultation exercises
which were carried out. From this document
came a vision statement “We are committed
to ensuring that all Brent’s children have access to a variety of good quality
play environments which offer challenge and stimulus” followed by outcomes
and objectives. This can be viewed on http://www.brentplay.org/PlayStrategy2005-2008withappendices.pdf
.
Problem statement
and objectives[1]
Sound evidence to support new policies is needed to
address deficiencies in child play space.
Of particular use would be to identify standards and barriers to the
accessibility of play space, and have these mapped on to our Geographic
Information System.
Brent currently determines play space deficiency by
being both further than 400m from an existing facility and in an area of high
child density. The National Playing
Fields Association also recommends a standard for Local Areas of Play (LAPs),
Local Equipped Areas of Play (LEAPs), and Neighbourhood Equipped Areas of Play
(NEAPs), being a distance of 100m, 400m, and 1,000m walking distance
respectively. These have been defined
within A Strategy for Brent Parks
2004-2009, which can be found on http://www.brent.gov.uk/parks.nsf
and following the ‘Plans and Strategies’ link to ‘Parks Strategy’.
New standards have also been proposed by the Mayor of
London in the Draft Supplementary Planning Guidance Providing for Children and Young People’s Play and Informal Recreation
October 2006 found on http://www.london.gov.uk/mayor/strategies/sds/spg-children-recreation.jsp
which introduces new Playable Space Typologies.
A comparison of other standards, such as those used
abroad may also be applicable.
Ideally it would be useful to know which standard(s),
is the most appropriate and if any other standard(s) should be adopted. A starting point may also be to look at the
effectiveness of the existing UDP policy by monitoring major residential/mixed use
developments through the Council’s database and checking if sufficient play
space has been provided.
Also in terms of play space, there is a need to
identify future needs for children’s play.
With a projected population growth of 28,000 by 2017 there is likely to
be increased demand for play space facilities.
A further outcome of the project may be to forecast where this demand is
needed most and to identify appropriate sites to accommodate this demand. Brent will be producing a development plan on
Site Specific Allocations, which will identify sites where new play space
facilities could be accommodated.
Primarily the outcomes of this piece of work will be
to:
·
Provide an evidence base for new
play space provision policy;
·
Identify existing areas of play
space deficiency, in terms of quality, quantity and accessibility;
·
Monitor effectiveness of existing
Play Space Policy OS18
·
Investigate play space standards;
·
Identify barriers and apply play
space standards locally to produce a comprehensive map(s) highlighting these
deficiencies.
·
Identify areas most in need,
particularly any site(s) available that may be able to reduce these
deficiencies;
·
Recommendations for future play
space policy.
[1] What
are the core issues? What
outcomes do you seek? If you favour
particular approaches, please identify them.
Note that careful problem definition and selection of methodologies or
approaches are key steps in the preparation phase in the