Is your local Angus playpark lined up for slice of £1m upgrade fund?

20 play areas across Angus will be improved in the next three years.

By Graham Brown

January 12 2024, 6:00am

Lochside playpark in Forfar beside the now-demolished leisure centre. Image: Graham Brown/DC Thomson

Angus Council plans to upgrade 20 local playparks in a £1.1million programme over the next three years.

The authority will use ring-fenced Scottish Government cash to carry out the improvements in towns and villages across the district.

It will see as much as £200k spent at some popular sites.

But council chiefs admit they are still a million pounds short of completing their wish list of playpark improvements.

And it comes after the revelation a £1m ‘destination’ playpark plan for Forfar has been ditched due to lack of funding.

On Tuesday, Communities committee councillors will learn the locations on the upgrade list.

The money is part of a £60m fund set up in 2021 after an SNP manifesto pledge to improve every playpark in Scotland.

Since 2021 more than £200k has been spent in Kirriemuir, Montrose, Letham, Forfar, Arbroath, Crombie and Monifieth.

Plans for the next three years reveal a major uplift in investment.

Angus is to receive £210k in 2023/24; £321k in 2024/25 and £585k for 2025/26.

There are almost 100 play areas across Angus.

So by the time the funding curtain comes down, only around a third will have been upgraded.

Where the upgrades are planned

This map shows the location of playparks which will be improved.

Cliffburn community park in Arbroath will be this year’s big spend with £130k of investment.

In the final year of the programme, Blue Seaway at Monifieth (£190k), Lochside in Forfar (£147k) and Montrose Splash (£201k) will all receive six-figure investment.

Blue Seaway park Monifeith — The Blue Seaway at Monifieth. Image: DC Thomson

Infrastructure director Graeme Dailly says: “If approved, the equipment being replaced will be chosen by engaging directly with schools, playgroups and users of the parks.

“Based on the success of recent engagement with children and families, environmental services will continue to work with the communities of Angus, adopting the participatory budgeting model.”

But he warns many parks will miss out when the Holyrood cash pot runs out.

“It is clear that the public play portfolio in Angus will require substantially more funding beyond the five-year grant received from the Scottish Government,” adds Mr Dailly.

“Further play area repair and replacement work has been identified in the existing playparks for the following three years in the region of £1,054,000, for which future funding will need to be sourced.”