Children's play areas in Nairn are 'failing' youngsters
Children in Queenspark in Nairn can expect to have equipment installed at the Riverside playground by next spring.
Highland Council have come under fire for neglect of the play areas in Nairn, including the Riverside, culminating in removal of the equipment at several sites for health and safety reasons.
Nairn Play’s aspirations to create a £250,000 multi-games play area at the Riverside faltered due to lack of funding and support for the project.
The group are now focusing on a more modest redevelopment and replacing existing equipment.
Morag Anderson, who moved to Nairn in September, is anxious to play a role in helping the local community by joining the Nairn Play committee.
She said they had only £22,000 available which will provide swings, a slide and a roundabout.
Nairn Play was established in 2015 as a charity and following public consultation, fun days and local fundraising the group decided to focus initially on Riverside play park.
The plan was for a £250,000 facility with a zip wire and an outdoor gym, but due to funding difficulties and the global pandemic the plan stalled.
Treasurer Stewart Stansfield said at the time there was funding available from the National Lottery which supported a £200,000 play park at Ardersier.
“Unfortunately that opportunity has gone,” he said. “We are now five years on and we need to move on and provide something for the kids of Queenspark.”
Ms Anderson said: “Nairn Play are renewing their focus on Riverside and are planning to replace the original equipment. We have enough funds for the swings, a slide and roundabout but we would like to enhance this with a zip slide and trim trail.
“I’m disgusted Highland Council has allowed play areas to get into this state.
“Play areas are the cornerstone of a child’s development. We are failing our kids.
“I’ve no political bias but I want to do something for the community and be here for the long term.
“I look around Queenspark and there’s nothing for the children. Its essentially a local authority housing estate which was built before the days of developer contributions on private estates. Even that seems to have failed in Nairn and its not just Queenspark that has suffered.”
Ms Anderson said the £7462 Nairn received from Highland Council would not even scratch the surface of the problems with play provision in Nairn.
“That represents £829 for each play area,” she said. “It won’t even provide one piece of equipment for each playground in the town.
“I worked on similar projects in Kirkintilloch and we all pulled together and got things done. Nairn is a great place for tourists but for locals it is desperately lacking in play parks and sporting facilities for its young people.”
At its September meeting, the Nairn area committee of Highland Council heard it was proposed to allocate £10,000 from the Place Based Investment Fund to its amenities officers with implementation by council staff.
The committee was told the aim was to take a broader approach to play and regarding play areas as social spaces for all age groups with less focus on play equipment and promoting natural play around existing features.
The council’s Nairn area leader Tom Heggie said: “We accept that the play equipment shouldn’t have been allowed to fall into a state of disrepair to the extent it had to be removed for health and safety reasons.
"But we provided funding three years ago to Nairn Play to replace that equipment and they wanted to do something much bigger – that never happened and the equipment had to be removed.
“I can say that we have carried out a full audit of all playgrounds in Nairnshire in the past couple of months and by spring we would hope to progress plans for replacing this much-needed equipment, including at the Riverside.”