Orkney's Play Sufficiency Assessment

As part of the  review of the Orkney Local Development Plan,  the council's Development and Marine Planning Team are required to provide a Play Sufficiency Assessment (PSA) as part of the 'Evidence Base' to send to the Scottish Government. This is being submitted in Spring 2025, ahead of the preparation of a new Local Development Plan for Orkney.

The PSA is a thorough assessment of the formal and informal play spaces available to young people in Orkney.  This determines the suitability of the play spaces, looking at where they are, how good they are and if they meet the expectations of young people, of all ages. Engagement with the young people in Orkney was important to find out if current provision was deemed adequate, or otherwise.

Open spaces, green infrastructure and formal play spaces are crucial components to successful land planning, helping to develop a healthy, fun and resilient environment for everyone. 

Guidance was published by the Scottish Government in December 2023 outlining the expectations of the PSA.

• Information on formal play spaces in the planning authority area, both by locality and in the totality of the planning authority area. The locations of formal play spaces must be shown on a map.
• Information on informal play spaces in the planning authority area, which have been identified as relevant by the planning authority or by children. The locations of informal play spaces do not require to be mapped.
• Statements setting out the assessment of the sufficiency of play opportunities with regard to quality, quantity, and accessibility, both by locality and in the totality of the planning authority area.

Furthermore, it is required that the overall assessment looks at provision split between the Orkney Mainland and our Isles. The PSA outlines provision in these 2 localities and will be reported as such in the Authority Play Park audit.

The PSA acknowledges the Orkney Play Area Strategy which was published in 2019 by Orkney Islands Council and seeks to align definitions and aspirations for play provision in Orkney.

The Orkney Play Area Strategy aims to raise awareness of the benefits and nature of play across Orkney and to highlight good practice and play examples by; promoting open-ended creative play opportunities and experiences; increasing opportunities to experience risk and challenge; encouraging the engagement of communities in play; promoting emotional and physical health and well-being to develop healthy children and adults; and developing a common, shared understanding across sectors and services

What is included in Orkney's PSA?

To meet the requirements under the published guidelines, the PSA includes the following:

• The Play Space Survey:
  • Engagement with Orkney’s young people to find out what they think of the Play Space available to them.
• Information on the most popular 'Formal' and 'Informal' Play Areas as identified by Orkney's Young People
• The Current Play Provision:
  • Where do you go? How do you get there?
  • 'Local Community Play Parks' and 'Destination Play Parks' on the Mainland - how the authority categorises the play provision and a closer look at the Destination Play Parks
  • Your Comments
  • What do you want?
• The Isles:
  • The current play provision in the isles
• Authority's Audit and Results:
  • An assessment of the formal provision currently offered on the Mainland and in the Isles
• Accessibility and Inclusivity:
  • How accessible and inclusive Orkney's play areas are and what aspirations there are to make improvements.
• Conclusions

The Development & Marine Planning team commenced engagement with the public in May 2024 with a series of drop in sessions and a consultation mailing. These communications involved notification of the commencement of the review of the Orkney Local Development Plan, which also promoted the Play Space Survey (the first stage of the PSA); an initial survey of Orkney's youth, asking for their thoughts on the play space available to them in Orkney and what else would improve their play experiences.

More focused engagement with communities, schools, young people groups in respect of the survey continued throughout June, July and September with emails, meetings and social media posts. Final reminders went out in September with a survey deadline of 30th September 2024.

This survey was conducted from May to September 2024 reaching out to as many young people in Orkney as possible, aged 0 to 18. A full report of the Play Space Survey is available here (TBC) including more detail on how we have engaged with our communities.

Formal Play Spaces (purpose built play areas)

The survey highlighted a number of formal and informal places where young people like to play and hang out. See below for the 10 most popular formal play parks to visit, as highlighted by the survey.

The survey also highlighted a number of more informal areas young people liked to play and hang out. See below for some images from these areas, while locating them on the map.

An important part of the review of the Plan is to assess how accessible play spaces are to Orkney’s young people which includes considering the walking times to and from current play areas, as well as the quality of existing facilities. Where there is deemed to be insufficient provision, the new Plan will seek to ensure play provision is prioritised where appropriate, when new housing development is proposed.

See below for a selection of the comments received from the young people (or their parents!):

Oh the whole we are really lucky to have so many great outdoor spaces for children to play. Some of the parks are a bit dated and tired but lots of options for small children. Not so much for older kids but not sure what older kids would want.

They are all quite good and well managed

I think they are fairly poor. A lot of the playparks, especially in Kirkwall, have missing equipment or damage or don’t have enough to keep all ages entertained. In a place like Orkney where we don’t have things like bowling, ice skating etc. like on the mainland,  we should have some brilliant play parks as an alternative.

No money is being spent on outside/play areas for any age bracket in Kirkwall. People wonder why kids stay inside or get up to mischief because there is nothing to do or areas are not maintained only taken away.

Limited hangout areas that are safe, existing playparks are in very poor condition.

There’s not many near me but apart from that the parks are good.

Old, unkempt. Not enough decent play equipment.

The final part of our survey was to ask, what do you want to see in Orkney? 

The graph below shows the equipment/facilities young people would like to see in Orkney and/or closer to their home. Many of the suggestions are not unusual or too ambitious, which possibly shows that in some areas, the 'basic' facilities are not available.

Some people also highlighted the wish for more exciting and challenging play equipment, like high climbing frames with multiple levels/activities. Reference was made to some adventure parks on the Scottish Mainland.

Other general features people would like to see in play areas included:

• Dog Areas
• Better surfaces
• No dog areas
• Better safety (fencing and lighting)
• Water stations
• Bins
• Food truck/cafe
• Shelter
• Parking
• Toilets
• CCTV

The majority of Orkney's play parks are what can be categorised as a 'Local Community Play Area', as defined in the Orkney Play Area Strategy.

It is worth noting that this PSA is inclusive of all identified formal play areas in Orkney. The Strategy, as published by Orkney Islands Council, refers to council owned provision which is indented to be used by young people age 12 or under.

The next Local Development Plan will seek to ensure that there is enough land, in the right places, to support play opportunities and offer solutions where they may be gaps in provision. It is an aspiration of the next Local Development Plan to support the provision of a local play space in settlements, ideally within 500m from your home, as specified within the Orkney Play Area Strategy.

Click on the map and zoom in to view the location of all of the formal play areas in Orkney. This map shows two buffers:

• The circular buffer represents the 500m distance as per the Orkney Play Area Strategy
• The non circular buffer is an alternative viewpoint, demonstrating a 5 minute walking distance (along paths/roads) from each fo the play areas.

Further analysis would be required to determine the safety of the walking routes and consider other factors such as gradient.

The quality and suitability of the play areas must also be taken into consideration. Even though many homes have a formal play area 500m of their home, the quality of this play area may be below expectations or the park may not be appropriate for a certain age group. The results from the Play Park Survey suggest that although there are play spaces in our larger settlements, the quality of provision is regarded as poor and people have to travel further to get to their preferred play area.

This quality of each Play Park is assessed in the Play Park audit and results of which will be considered alongside the location of the parks to determine the overall 'sufficiency' of each play area.

In Orkney there are a number of play areas that can be categorised as a Destination Play Park. These are parks which may not be expected to be local to everyone, but where it is accepted that friends and family would travel by car or bus to visit.

These parks generally offer a wider range of play opportunities, car parking, larger area to play with a ball/and or run about. In addition, these areas may offer facilities such as extra seating and a BBQ area.

Via the Orkney Play Area Strategy, Orkney Islands Council recognise the Summerdale Park in Kirkwall as a Destination park, with longer term plans to develop the Papdale East Play Area in Kirkwall and Marwick Play Area in Stromness as future Destination Parks.

In addition to these OIC parks, there have been a number of community parks developed over recent years which would also be categorised as Destination Parks.

Click in the box below (opens a new browser) for more information on Orkney's Destination Play Parks.

The young people from Orkney's island communities provided a good response to our Play Space Survey.

Through various community funding and initiatives, a number of the 'isles' schools play parks have been able to develop/upgrade their local play park, usually situated at the local school. The level of provision varies from island to island, recognising definite room for improvement in some areas.

Click in the box below (opens a new browser) to find out what's been happening in the isles and gain a snapshot of what some of the young people think of their play area.

Orkney Islands Council conducted an audit of the formal play parks in Orkney. These included authority owned play areas as well as parks developed by local community groups.

Play Scotland created a ‘Quality of Play Environment’ survey on which this survey is based.  The audit is in a number of sections:

Location - site, attractiveness, general impression (litter etc).  Most parks should aspire to be almost top marks in this category without too much investment

Accessibility – focusing on entrances/exits, transport links, safety and movement around the area.  This is something all parks should aim for full marks.

Features – looking at general features such as cleanliness, lighting, bins, seating.  All parks should be able to obtain full marks in this area with some support form the local authority/community.

Environmental – grass, shelter, pollution etc.  Parks should be close to full marks here with some support from the local authority/community.

Physical, Creative and Social Play for different age groups – focus on the different play opportunities in the park, including equipment and creative/environmental options (water, sand, planting etc).

Accessibility & Inclusivity - everyone should be able access and enjoy Orkney's play parks together, no matter their age or ability. This is assessed in the Play Park Audit, although it is acknowledged that there is a lot of room for improvement in this respect.

A big thank you to staff at Stronsay, Westray, Papa Westray, Rousay, North Ronaldsay, Eday and Shapinsay schools for their help and co-operation with the Play Park Audit.

The full results of the Authority's Play Park Audit will be available soon.

Accessibility: Providing equal access to the physical environment, including entrances, surfaces, and play equipment. 

Inclusivity: Creating a play space where all children can participate in play in their own way, regardless of ability. Inclusive play spaces consider social factors and play value, and aim to provide a variety of play opportunities.

There is a gap in provision, when it comes to accessible equipment in play areas.  This is something all local authorities/communities should aspire to providing in their parks.

Even if everyone can enter/exit through a suitable gate to access a play area, it is often the case that some may struggle to move around (in a wheelchair or with a buggy) when in the park, due to lack of appropriate paths/surfaces. 

Accordance to the Disability Discrimination Act is (DDA) an element PlayScotland recommend that is assessed as part of this audit. However, an assessment of how play area entrances and layout accord with the Disability Disability Act (DDA) is undertaken annual by an independent specialist, via the authority’s Education and Leisure Service.  So although this audit considers path quality/provision, the legal accordance to DDA has not been formally assessed and is therefore no included in the scoring.

 In the Play Space Survey, 15 people said they would like to see more accessible entrances and accessible equipment in their local parks. 

•  Destination  Play Parks in Orkney are of good standard and offer valuable play areas for young people providing the majority of play provision for those able to travel by car or bus.
• The Location and Quality of Orkney's Local Play Areas are generally in need of improvement:
  • Location: gaps in provision in some areas is shown by the 5 minute walking distance buffer
  • Quality: broken equipment is not being fixed, resulting in the demise of some smaller parks.
• Where new housing developments are proposed, the new Local Development Plan can recommend that play areas are created/upgraded in the right areas via set planning conditions.
• Any proposed upgrades or new play areas may have to include an item of equipment suitable for a disabled user. Although it is accepted that it is not possible for all parks in Orkney to have accessible equipment, this should be an aspiration for all areas going forward. Inclusivity should be a key priority.
• Where potential 'quick wins' have been identified via community feedback, this can be reported to the relevant department for action. This could be such as providing a bin, installing appropriate signage or fixing fencing or lighting.
• There is mixed opportunities for play on our isles, with some benefiting from community projects/funding able to develop excellent provision (creating their own destination standard parks) and others unable to capitalise from such opportunities with very poor provision at the moment.