More than £180,000 extra will be spent on the refurbishment of play parks across West Lothian.
The money represents West Lothian’s allocation of a £5 million fund for play areas from the Scottish Government for the financial year 2021/22.
The local authority area has approximately 300 play facilities, featuring in excess of 1,700 individual items of equipment.
The money - totalling £184,000 - will be added to the current budget of £509,000 this financial year for planned play area makeovers across West Lothian as part of the councils’ capital investment programme.
There are currently 13 planned and ongoing play area refurbishment and installation projects due to be completed by April 2022 across West Lothian.
At a recent meeting of Livingston North local area committee ward councillor, Andrew Miller, asked for an update on the work that is done to parks in his area. He pointed out that some enclosed pitches were largely used as dog exercise areas.
The Neighbourhood Environment Teams (NETs) agreed to provide a report on the provision of sports facilities to the next meeting of the Livingston North local area committee.
Fellow ward councillor, Alison Adamson, followed up at an Executive meeting this week with questions on what could be done for teens in the ward in the way of providing kick pitches and sports facilities- given the multi-use games area pitches (Muga) were not included in the funding package.
David Cullen from the NETs team said that sports facilities such as Muga pitches were maintained under the open spaces capital budget.
Executive councillor for the environment Tom Conn said: “The council has a plan in place to maintain the quality of its play areas and open spaces across West Lothian through its capital investment programme. The additional funds will allow officers to accelerate elements of the programme and help to ensure that play facilities are of a high standard for children and their families to enjoy.”
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