INTRODUCTION

Carmarthenshire County Council encourages and supports clubs, community organisations and sports associations to independently manage and maintain Changing Facilities, Playing Fields, and Playgrounds.

In order to assist such groups, the authority has put together a toolkit which will provide a comprehensive guide on how to set up and run these facilities.
The toolkit contains guidance on funding, technical guidance, risk assessment, legislation, licences and much more.

Background

During 2006/07 Carmarthenshire County Council (CCC) undertook a review of Changing Facilities, Playing fields and Playgrounds. The review looked at the following areas:

• CCC owned and managed facilities,
• Non CCC owned and managed facilities,
• A future model for the management and funding of these facilities across Carmarthenshire that takes account of the diverse nature of Carmarthenshire.

At the time of the review it was established that the Authority never had a policy for the provision and management of its Changing Facilities, Playing Fields, and Playgrounds. The County's portfolio is very extensive and very diverse in terms of type, condition, location and management arrangement. Demand for playing fields and changing facilities in particular, had grown significantly, particularly at a junior level and in addition to this the demand for good quality children’s playgrounds had exceeded the amount of funding available to support it over the past 4-5 years. In addition to this, it was noted that many of the playgrounds were in need of significant investment to meet modern day standards to comply with health and safety legislation.

The review identified an imbalance with regards the terms of management and County Council subsidy across the authority for these facilities. This in turn has had an adverse effect on the maintenance both re-active and planned maintenance programming, creating a high dissatisfaction amongst users with some facilities.

To address these issues, a consistent County wide policy on the ownership and management of these facilities has since been proposed. In many instances this will mean that, in the future, CCC will not own / manage all the facilities it currently has and thus the model would provide an opportunity for local community organisation to take on the ownership and management of such facilities – with help and support from CCC via the toolkit.