Space to Play Campaign

The Space to Play campaign wants South Lanarkshire to be the best place to bring up children. So we want to know what our elected members will do to act on play. To do this we need your help. Please use this letter as a guide to contact your councillors where ever you are in South Lanarkshire. Change it to mention any particular issues around play in your community. And please send this Space to Play a copy of the reply on spacetoplaysl@gmail.com. The letter is also available as plain text if your device cannot read .odt files You can find contact details for your South Lanarkshire councillor here.  

South Lanarkshire Council acted unlawfully when it removed Hazelhead Play Park. They should have applied for planning permission to make this material change to land. When they acted without consultation, they also ignored their own planning guidance which states that communities should be involved in the management of their open spaces. These are the conclusions of the Environmental Rights Centre for Scotland (https://www.ercs.scot) who have looked into the Hazelhead Park case. We have now submitted a formal complaint to SLC raising these points, as follows: Stage one complaint Removal of Hazelhead play park equipment I wish to make a stage one complaint as per the Council’s complaints procedure regarding the above matter. Around the end of May 2021, the play park equipment was removed from Hazelhead play park by South Lanarkshire Council employees. There was no consultation with the local community and planning permission was not first obtained by the Council prior to the removal. At the date of this complaint, the Council has not confirmed that it plans to restore the equipment to the play park. The play park has been left without play park equipment. Our complaint has two grounds. First, the Council should have obtained planning permission prior to the removal and its failure to do so was unlawful. Second, the removal of the play park without any public consultation was contrary to Council policy. We are seeking to have the play park equipment reinstated as soon as possible as a result of this complaint. 1. Ground of complaint 1 – failure to obtain prior planning permission As you will be aware, Section 28(1) of the Town and Country Planning (Scotland) Act 1997 (‘the 1997 Act’) provides that planning permission is required for the carrying out of any development of land. The meaning of the term ‘development’ is defined in Section 26(1) of the 1997 Act and includes, “the making of any material change in the use of any buildings or other land”. Our view is that the removal of the play park equipment amounted to an act which resulted in a material change in the use of the land on which the play park is located. By removing the play park equipment, the Council changed the use of the land from one of a play park to one of vacant land which can no longer be described as a play park. As such, the removal of the play park constituted a development within the meaning of Section 26(1) and planning permission should have been obtained by the Council prior to the removal of the play park as per Section 28(1). My view is that the Council’s failure to obtain planning permission before removing the play park was unlawful. 2. Ground of complaint 2 – removal of play park contrary to Council policy South Lanarkshire Council has produced supplementary guidance to assist the implementation of the South Lanarkshire Local Development Plan. The 2014 document, ‘Supplementary Guidance 8: Green Network and Greenspace’ contains guidance on the mechanisms and actions to deliver high quality greenspaces and is directly relevant to this complaint. Table 4.1 of Supplementary Guidance 8 contains a list of ‘greenspace design principles’ which are intended to guide how developments can be designed to enhance and deliver the local green network. One of the principles referred to at page 26 is ‘community involvement in management’. As stated above, the removal of the play park equipment constituted a development and there was no public consultation prior to that development taking place. Our view is that the removal of the play park equipment was contrary to Supplementary Guidance 8, because it failed to take account of the greenspace design principle of community involvement in management. There was no community involvement in the removal of the play park equipment, the equipment was removed by the Council without any involvement from the community.

A South Lanarkshire campaign group is calling on the Council to recognise the importance of play for children’s’ wellbeing and to take action to improve play opportunities in local communities.  The Space to Play campaign is asking South Lanarkshire Council to prepare a play strategy, to open up Multi Use Games Areas (MUGA)  out-with school hours and to renew all local play parks. The group has been backed by Scottish Greens MSP Gillian Mackay who recently raised a motion in parliament. The Central Scotland MSP believes that implementing these actions will help ensure that South Lanarkshire upholds the rights of children to play and be heard, as enshrined in the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child. Gillian Mackay MSP said: “I commend the hard work and effort of the Space to Play campaigners who rightly highlight that Multi Use Games Areas and play parks are fabulous spaces to help improve health, wellbeing and community activity. “I would urge South Lanarkshire Council to prepare a play strategy which would see more MUGA’s opened up out-with school hours for community use, renewed parks and more opportunities for children to play in our communities.” Kirsten Robb from the Space to Play Campaign added: “We’d like to thank Gillian for her support and all the MSPs who have signed the motion so far. By getting play raised in parliament we are saying loud and clear that play is vital and that our children deserve better. To help our kids, we are asking people to sign the Space to Play South Lanarkshire petition on change.org, join the campaign page at www.facebook.com/spacetoplaysl and ask their MSPs to sign Gillian’s motion too.” 

Campaigners are celebrating the re-opening of community facilities, some of which have been closed to the public for many years. In January, Kirsten Robb from the Scottish Greens and The Space to Play campaign wrote to South Lanarkshire Council (SLC) to highlight that in and around one council ward, 4 of the 7 multi-use games areas (MUGAs) attached to new primary schools were closed. This is despite the intention for these MUGAs to be open out of school hours for community use and only to be closed for a short period if there were vandalism issues.  After several emails and meetings between SLC and the campaign, another 3 MUGA’s were reopened, including the one adjacent to St. Leonard’s Primary School, which had been closed for years, and those at St. Hilary’s and Long Calderwood Primary Schools. South Lanarkshire Council also confirmed they are investigating how informal access could also be made for the games area at Hunter Primary. Kirsten said, “Free-to-use play spaces are really important for children’s health and well-being. That’s why it was absolutely right that the new MUGAs were to be available to local communities out with school hours. Even more so as some of these schools were built on previously open greenspaces. I’m really pleased that the campaign’s efforts helped open up another 3 MUGAs for my local community. I would like to thank SLC, schools, janitors and communities for their help to get the MUGAs reopened and in keeping them clean and tidy for everyone to enjoy.” A list provided to the campaign by the council shows that there are 125 primary schools in South Lanarkshire, 73 with informal access to a pitch or MUGA that could be open. Of these, the list states that 9 are currently closed. If your local MUGA isn’t open and you think it should be, check this council provided list of sports facilities and access within the school. If it should be open and is not, then contact kirsten.robb@scottishgreens.org.uk for help. Scottish Greens Central Region MSP, Gillian McKay, added: “I’m delighted to see South Lanarkshire Council have reached this decision and MUGA’s are being opened up out-with school hours for community benefit. At a time when many young people have been stuck indoors for a sustained period of time, these Multi Use Games Area’s will bring a great deal of joy as well as health & well-being benefits. I’d like to thank Kirsten and everyone at the Space to Play Campaign for their hard-work and dedication, without them this wouldn’t have happened. This highlights the importance of community organising and solidarity, and long may it continue.” To support the campaign to open up more MUGAs to local communities and for SLC to prepare a play strategy to recognise the importance of play, sign here https://greens.scot/space-to-play . Join the Space to Play South Lanarkshire community on  https://www.facebook.com/groups/spacetoplaysl

Many local people told Green activists that one of their top concerns is a lack of things for young people to do. Since then, local resident and Green campaigner, Kirsten Robb, has been investigating local play spaces and working with the community to get improvements.

Multi Use Games Areas (MUGAs) and football pitches in schools are fabulous spaces to help increase health, wellbeing and community activity, safely away from traffic hazards. They are meant to be freely available to local communities outwith school hours, but many of these are now locked up. Support our call for South Lanarkshire Council to open up more MUGA’s and school football pitches for local communities.  New Multi Use Games Areas (MUGAs) and football pitches have been built alongside new primary and secondary schools across South Lanarkshire over the past decade or so. Investigating these in her local ward, East Kilbride East resident and Green campaigner, Kirsten Robb, was told by South Lanarkshire Council (SLC) that MUGAs should be open out with school hours, unless closed ‘for a period’ for maintenance or vandalism. But when Kirsten visited local sites recently she found only 3 out of the potential 7 play areas in the ward open, with many other grass areas waterlogged and unplayable. She was also told that pitches linked to secondary schools, such as those at Calderglen High School are not available either, as responsibility for them lies with the private owners of the school built under Private Public Partnership (PPP).  Many of these spaces to play, often built on previously openly available greenspaces, are now locked away from local people.  Issues around vandalism have been raised, along with the impact on janitor workload. And in the case of Calderglen High, the council does not even have responsibility for the pitches. Yet, it comes down to this – these sites were intended for community use too and that is not happening in many cases. And with other greenspaces waterlogged, there are less and less traffic-free places for children, families and young people to play and exercise.  With support to maintain, manage and improve them, these spaces could be opened up to the local community as originally intended.  Support our call for South Lanarkshire Council to open up more MUGA’s and school football pitches outwith school hours