Elles Close Play Area – An example Audit Report
Score
Current Hierarchy
Listing
Suggested Hierarchy
Listing
Primary Purpose
Usefulness
Design
Facilities
Maintenance
Overall Quality
Accessibility
Retain or Not
Other
Recommendations
Local Open Space
Local Open Space with Play Area
To act as a visual and physical barrier to the
road and to provide a place where children
can safely play
The site is only going to be used by local
people. The solid wooden barrier means that
it cannot be seen by thousands of passers-by
Target score - 6
Target score - 3
Target score - 7
Target score - 6
Reasonable for local people but not for
passers-by in cars – no real physical barriers
apart from poor maintenance. Information is
not particularly accessible
Yes
Provide a see through barrier rather
than a solid one next to the dual
carriageway
Consider re-planting trees to improve
the visual aspect.
Improve the maintenance
7
5
5
3
4
4
6
7
Supporting Information
The visit was carried out on a dry, sunny weekday in August. The temperature was
around 25 degrees centigrade.
The site looks fairly attractive on first impression.
Grass cutting surrounding the play area was very reasonable apart from the ‘soldiers’,
which would indicate that it would be better to use a rotary machine for cutting.
The sign does not mention the name of the site but was otherwise in fair condition.
The abacus has a whole section missing from the adjacent section.
There was some damaged fencing adjacent to the dual carriageway, which obviously
needs to be repaired as soon as possible.
There was a large amount of weed between the tarmac and the safer surfacing. This
has been weed sprayed, but was beginning to grow back again and looked very
unsightly.
The gate leading to the play area is a vehicle gate; it is not self closing and was open
at the time of the visit.
There was a bin with liner, but the site has no seats.
The safer surfacing appeared to be reasonably new.
The swings were intact.
The whole area, including the equipment, appeared reasonably new.
A whole section of fence was missing from the play area boundary, next to the two
junior swings.
Some minor pruning work was required to the few trees on the open space.
There are a lot of tree stakes with no trees, but the whole area provides the appearance
of a good piece of artwork.
The planting in and around the path leading to the underpass was very good, but not
the responsibility of the Council.
This is the end of the Example Audit; the audits for all of the other council sites
are provided as Appendix 6.