The Future of Ilmington’s Playground
Much of the equipment at Grace's Playground is near the end of its life. To replace all of the equipment would cost £200,000 which is beyond the current financial resources of the Council. The Council would like your views as to how it should respond to this challenge.
Published: 6 December 2022
By Cllr Martin Underwood
There has been a children’s play area at Ilmington playing fields since the 1950s. Some of the playground equipment still in use dates from that period. Additional play equipment was bought in 2009 in memory of Grace Wright, when the play area was re-named as Grace’s Playground. Much of the play equipment is in need of maintenance or renewal. Several items, such as the small multiplay, and basket swing have been taken out of service because they had become dangerous. Other items such as the junior swing and the embankment slide may not meet current safety standards and are likely to be removed from service in the near future.
Grace’s playground is an asset to the village and is much used by both residents and visitors. There is, perhaps, more play equipment than might be expected for a village the size of Ilmington. The parish council owns the play equipment and is responsible for its maintenance. During this financial year we have already spent £3,500 to maintain this equipment and anticipate spending more from current financial reserves. Nevertheless, we are still failing to maintain the current equipment to a satisfactory standard and we do not have the resources to buy new modern play equipment.
The Challenge
To replace all of the current equipment would cost in the order of £150,000 to £200,000. With each item lasting 10-15 years and ongoing maintenance and repair costs during this time, we estimate we need to allocate £20,000 per year towards maintaining Grace’s Playground. This means we should budget around £20,000 per year to be able to maintain a high-quality playground of the current size. This year the parish council’s budgeted total income was £21,023. Almost all of this comes from the parish precept of £20,969, included in your council tax bill.
The council does not currently have the financial resources to continue to look after the playground of this size. The council has made three applications for grant funding to repair and replace equipment. Whatever the eventual outcome of these applications, there will still be large costs to maintain Grace’s Playground. Our only reliable source of income to do this is the parish precept. If the precept was increased, we would be better able to look after Grace’s Playground.
The Parish Council wants to know what Ilmington residents would like us to do. We think there are three options:
- Managed decline. Continue routine maintenance and remove from service any equipment that needs major repairs or fails. With no replacement plan, unless external funding obtained. No change to precept
- Consolidation: Continue routine maintenance. When equipment needs major repairs or fails repair/replacement will be done on a case-by-case basis with an anticipated halving of the amount of equipment in the medium term. Increase precept by 50%
- Continuation: No change to overall amount of equipment. Repair and replace as needed. Where appropriate replace with higher quality modern equipment. Double the precept
Whichever option is chosen the Parish Council will continue to seek external funds to support the playground. If consolidation or continuation is chosen the Parish Council would have the option to reduce the precept in future years if the additional funding is no longer required.
Understanding the Precept
Most of us probably do not pay much attention to the breakdown of our council tax bills. In the small print you will see an amount for the precept which is what pays for parish council activities. These include mowing the village greens and playing field, playground maintenance, pavilion maintenance, tree works, benches and grit bins, general administration costs and audit fees.
In Ilmington the precept is around 3.5% of your overall council tax bill. For a band D home this is £54.25 per year in 2022-23. This is less than the average precept charged for a band D home in Warwickshire of £66.08. The smallest include £14.93 in Chesterton and Kingston at £13.87, and the largest is £153.29 at Farnborough. This excludes the 21 parishes charging no precept. The national average of parish precepts is £74.81 per year.
A 50% increase in precept for the parish of Ilmington would add 1.75% to your council tax bill, a doubling would increase it by 3.5%. Even a doubling of the precept would mean there were a number of Warwickshire parishes with a higher precept than Ilmington.
Council tax charges are often quoted for the “average” Band D property. To understand the charges for different Bands, please enlarge the table below.
Over to You
The Council would like your views as to how it should respond to this challenge. Please complete the questionnaire which has been distributed to all households in the parish and return it in accordance with the directions given at the head of that page. Replies are anonymous and therefore confidential.
Please respond by 5pm on Friday 6 January 2023.
Should you require any further information then please contact the Council via email or speak to a member of the Parish Council (for details please see the noticeboard adjacent to the shop).