The collective pressure from Ashtead residents, local Councillors and the ARA seems to be achieving results not only for our children's playgrounds but right across Mole Valley. 

As a result of many representations about the poor condition of these valuable assets, and a £0.5 million underspend on the Council's revenue budget over the last financial year, £100,000 is being transferred to the Asset Maintenance Reserve to fund additional works to playgrounds in 2025/26. This will be in addition to the usual annual allocation of funds for this purpose. 

In recent months local residents have had to intervene to erect safety fencing around a sunken trampoline which had become unsafe and they also added protective tape to areas of damage on wire-cored ropes on scrambling nets to reduce the hazard from fraying wires. 

Council Officers are now preparing a further bid for a number of playgrounds to be refurbished with the benefit of funding from the Strategic Community Infrastructure Levy. Even if this bid is successful, and most residents of Mole Valley are hoping that it will be, it will take some time to plan, procure and deliver the programme of much needed improvements.

It is to be hoped that an accrued underspend of £5.5 million on capital projects may lead to more investment at grass roots level throughout the District.  

MVDC’s playgrounds are inspected monthly by a specialist playground's contractor with their findings reported to the Parks and Open Spaces Team at MVDC who then decide the appropriate course of action. Since approval of this year's budget in February the Team have placed orders for playground equipment repairs identified as being a high or medium risk to public safety. There are also a number of items which are currently classified as low risk which are managed in a variety of ways, such as low cost intervention or through a regular monitoring programme either by the Council’s general maintenance contractor, who checks each park weekly, or by the Parks and Open Spaces Team.

In some cases, the only alternative to repairing the item will be to take it out of use pending removal or replacement. The transfer of the £100,000 to the supplementary revenue budget request is to ensure that there are sufficient funds in the planned budget for the remainder of 2025/26 to enable the appropriate actions to be taken. 

The Parks and Open Spaces Team have asked that they be notified immediately and directly of any safety issues with the equipment in Mole Valley's children's playgrounds so that any problems can be investigated as soon as they appear. It is not possible for Council officers to join and monitor the many Facebook Groups which exist in Mole Valley.

Damaged playground equipment can be reported at  https://www.molevalley.gov.uk/report/ by selecting Parks, Buildings & Environment, and then Parks, Playgrounds and Open Spaces from the drop-down menu; on the page which opens beneath the heading Parks, Playgrounds and Open Spaces - Report an Issue choose the "Location" tab and then select the location of the playground from either a list, a map or by what3words; then under "Issue Details" choose "Playground Equipment", identify the equipment and describe the issue, adding images as available, and when complete press "Submit".

It is suggested that residents retain a copy of any submission made and record the date on which it was submitted in case the need arises to refer the matter to the ARA or to Councillors.

To view the full Performance and Financial Report follow this link.