The ACT Government has released a new play space strategy to guide improvements and investment across Canberra's playgrounds.
"Play is essential to the cognitive, physical and social development of children and young people. It is a way to explore the world and develop a sense of self and place – in our environments, our communities and our neighbourhoods," said Minister for Transport and City Services Chris Steel.
"The new strategy guides the forward planning, delivery and management of more than 500 playgrounds across the ACT. It creates a framework to deliver an equitable, inclusive, diverse, safe and engaging mix of play opportunities across Canberra.
"I would like to thank all Canberrans who participated in the development of this new strategy, which will now guide our efforts to continually improve our playgrounds for all levels of ability, right across the age spectrum."
The strategy sets out six key objectives:
- Develop play spaces for better health, wellbeing and connectedness
- Keep play spaces safe and welcoming
- Make play spaces for everyone
- Improve the quality and diversity of play experience
- Foster sustainable play spaces that are resilient to a changing climate
- Partner with community to make better play spaces
The release of the ACT Play Space Strategy follows community consultation undertaken from 2 November to 12 December 2021 on the vision, objectives and actions of the strategy as well as the play space network.
To ensure we are meeting the community's expectations we have reflected the following types of actions in the final strategy:
- The ACT community supports a 'quality over quantity' approach to improving the play space network
- We will strengthen and promote processes for establishing and managing community-led initiatives and social infrastructure on public land. Such as bike pump tracks
- Our investment will focus on increasing the diversity of play experiences at district and central playgrounds
- We prioritise the delivery of accessible and inclusive playgrounds across the ACT play space network so that everyone feels welcome and can participate
- We will develop a Play Value Index to assess play value, complement safety audit information and better inform investment priorities across the ACT play space network.
- We ensure our playgrounds are sustainable and resilient to a changing climate and incorporate recycled and repurposed materials in new playgrounds
- We make sure our playgrounds stay safe for the entire community to use
The initial draft strategy was developed through a community centred approach to planning for play. The ACT Government facilitated the citizen-led Better Suburbs Play Space Forum as a showcase project in deliberative democracy.
To view a copy of the strategy visit: https://yoursayconversations.act.gov.au/play-space-strategy
