Councils across the country are discovering that when it comes to designing play spaces, children really are the experts. Phil Cain reveals.

"I like spinning," replies nine-year-old Rebecca-Louise, when asked whyshe wanted the council to install a roundabout in her localplayground.

She is also keen on hopscotch: "Little and big people can play becauseit is low and I wanted the floor to look nice," she explains.

Rebecca-Louise is one of a number of schoolchildren who have recentlytaken part in a consultation on a new play area at St Michaels RoadRecreation Ground in Bradford. The consultation came about after aneighbourhood action group petitioned the council to repair the damagethat was caused during the riots in 2000. "It is pretty much the onlygreen space in the area," reveals Alexandra Long, a play developmentofficer for the city's local education authority, who helped organisethe consultation.

While eight-year-old Mirjahengir wanted swings and slides, others werekeener on places to play sports. However, all agree that it was nice tobe asked what they wanted, and their input led to the selection of aroundabout and three climbing frames, which include a slide.

With funding of around 27,000 to refurbish the ground from avariety of sources including two local Sure Start partnerships and theNeighbourhood Road Safety Initiative, the council identified threeequipment suppliers, before talking to children and young people fromtwo local schools, Springwood Community and Green Lane Primary School,about what they wanted built.

"It doesn't make sense to do it without talking to service users,"explains Long. "Why install something in a playground without knowing ifit will actually be used by anyone?"

The requests included a guard dog, a tree house, a sweet shop and"something to stop the ball going down the hill". "We took a mosaicapproach to the project," continues Long. "We let the children piecetogether photographs of what they wanted."

Picking the right equipment

The youngsters were also asked to go through the brochure of the chosenequipment suppliers, to indicate their preferences by putting stickerson bits of equipment, as well as giving a presentation at a workshopwith council staff. And while a dartboard was high on the list ofpriorities the children came round to the view that it was impractical."You can never underestimate young people's ability to reason," addsLong.

This is a view echoed by Adrian Voce, director of the Children's PlayCouncil. "We endorse the view that children have a right to be involvedin decisions that affect them," he says. "Of all activities that youngpeople take part in, playing is the one where, if it is to be true tothe nature of play, it needs to be led by them."

Consulting children also has powerful supporters close togovernment.

For instance, last year, it was the subject of a 68-page report, WhatWould You Do With This Space?, from the Commission for Architecture andthe Built Environment Spaces programme, which made a strong case for theongoing involvement of children and young people in the design,development and management of public space.

Whether this case is being heard, however, is a moot point. According toVoce, while local authorities spend around 8p per child per week onplaygrounds and another 14p on out-of-school activities, there arecurrently no official figures for the number of play spaces that aredesigned and built in consultation with children, or the amount spent onthem.

Local authorities must take action

For Voce, this dearth of statistical evidence is down to the fact thatthere isn't a national play development agency to monitor thesituation.

But he says this lack of national leadership and monitoring should notstop local authorities developing their own consultative play strategy,pointing out that the Audit Commission has developed an indicator formeasuring the development of play strategies that takes into account thelevel of children's consultation.

However, even if this battle to consult with children is won, effectivedialogue is far from simple, and a child's response to even the mostinformal consultation exercise can be disappointing. As Nicola Butler, aconsultant with PlayLink, observes, her own young son's response to thequestion: "How was your day at school?" is often simply "fine" or"good".

As a result, consulting with children needs to be well planned andfunded if it's going to work. "Children's participation needs to becarefully thought out and properly resourced," advises Voce. "It is notsomething that should be done on the cheap. It is a particular skill toengage with children and young people, so you need to take the time andemploy the necessary staff to do this work."

Butler also believes that, rather than simply posing direct questions,it is wise to take a more indirect approach. "It is not necessarilyabout asking what the children want," she advises. "It is about watchingand listening." And it is helpful for adults to remember what they likedwhen they were children.

For Butler, many successful play projects are based around naturalobjects, such as boulders, grassy areas, sand and water. A lack ofcontact with the natural environment affects children she says, "andchildren appreciate that it is something different, which changes everytime they visit".

As a result, she advocates the involvement of someone creative orimaginative when planning the space. "A good local play area mightreflect its local history or geography," she says, citing two Scottishprojects at Balmahar in Stirling and Kirkton Farm, in Sutherland, whichused local materials following a long period of consultation with localchildren.

However, isn't there a danger that consultation could raise unrealisticexpectations? "Children should not be given false expectations of whatthey are doing," says Voce. "Nobody's suggesting that local authoritiesshould go out with a blank cheque book."

Not even John Cole, Liberal councillor in the Bradford ward of Baildonand the council's children's play champion, who was elected earlier thisyear (Children Now, 20-26 April). For Cole, it needs to be made clear toparticipating children that: "They can make suggestions but they won'tget the world. It should be a learning experience for them where theylearn about topics such as the role of planning regulations."

And Cole believes it's imperative to be honest about what the limitsare. "But it has to be done in good faith, as some councils will alreadyhave made up their mind about what they want," he adds. When doneproperly, however, Cole says the benefits are substantial. "It reducesvandalism and damage because the children have ownership of the space.And because of the proven potential for a good play area to reduce crimeand vandalism, the police may chuck big chunks of money at it."

Even before Cole assumed the champion's role, he reveals he had directexperience of consulting with children in his effort to equip teenagersin his ward with a BMX "bike balancing" facility. The impetus was theirhabit of balancing on local monuments, which, Cole admits, "providedvery rich fare for intergenerational strife".

Problems with local objections

As a result of Cole's intervention, half-a-dozen teenagers were invitedto look over the plans for the 7,000 bike balancing facility andwere asked to suggest where different elements of the course might bebest placed. However, Cole admits the facility is now relativelyunder-used because, by the time the objections of local people to theloss of three parking spaces, a section of wood and a public right ofway had been answered, the balancers had moved on to other pastimes. ButCole is hopeful that bike balancing will come back into vogue soon.

Forest Fields play centre in Nottingham, which is run from a terracedhouse, is another project that faces challenges when it comes toappealing to young people, but believes its success lies in listening towhat children want.

"It's probably not the best of the five Nottingham play centres in termsof space, but if the children want to do something, we try and help themto do it," says centre worker Viva Yousouf. This approach is madeeasier, she says, by having "loose parts" available, such as tyres, woodchips and by the staff's generally liberal attitude to "putting the tapson", despite the objections of the wood-chip suppliers. For Yousouf,destruction is part of a constant creative process, rather than an actof vandalism.

"Things tend to get built and then destroyed," she concludes.

- Further information PlayLink has recently published a report Placesfor Play, which illustrates some of the many creative ways in whichchildren's outdoor play is being catered for. To obtain a copy, visitwww.freeplaynetwork.org.uk/pubs/index.html

CASE STUDY

All Mead Gardens, from wasteland to Viking play space

Consultation with children was an important part of creating the AllMead Gardens play area in Hackney, London. The whole project absorbedjust over 200,000 of the 43m raised from the EuropeanUnion, local and central government to regenerate 10,000 low-rise formercouncil flats, which had been transferred to Shaftesbury Housing Groupsubsidiary Kingsmead Homes in 1999.

"It was just weeds and rubble," reveals Sebastien Miller, landscapearchitect at Parklife, the company asked to design the new play area. Ittook about six months to produce the original design, reveals Miller,followed by one year of community engagement.

And the end result?

A Viking ship, linking in with local archaeology sites, rope rigging,slides, water cannon, a raised "lazy lawn" and nautical octopusdesigns.

However, getting local buy-in didn't come easily: "We did a drop of3,000 leaflets on the estate and only got four replies," admits Miller.So Parklife brought in Free Form Arts, an environmental designconsultancy, to help whip-up enthusiasm. "A park should not just beplonked there," says Alan Rossiter, associate director at Free FormArts. "It must be unique to the area."

As a result, attention-grabbing local events played a part in musteringsupport, such as pagan tree-dressing rituals, and getting the localKingsmead Primary School involved through a study of Vikings. Also vitalwas a competition to rename the area, previously known as Egbert.

However, it was also not a free for all, concludes Miller. "If somechild wants a rocket-type of design you have to tell them no," he says."You have to have a measure of control otherwise you can end up withanything."

CHILDREN NOW CONFERENCE

Engaging children to help design safe, imaginative and inclusive playsettings will be one of the seminars at Children Now's two-dayPrioritising Play conference, which will be held on 20 and 21October.

As well as providing a range of case-study sessions, the conference willhear from leading figures such as Adrian Voce, director of theChildren's Play Council, Sir Clive Booth, chair of the Big Lottery Fund,and Paul Bonel, director of the Playwork Unit at SkillsActive.

The conference will be held at The Waldorf Hilton, in London, and tofind out more call 020 8267 4011 or visit www.playconference.com.