Parc Pawb or Everyone’s Parc is a slowly drawn vision of an improved and up-scaled play and leisure facility that will universal appeal, purposefully offering a wide range of locally determined features that benefit ‘all’ potential users of the play-space. The new development will also draw visitors into the small, recently by-passed, town thus acting as a natural gateway introducing the place and its cultural maritime heritage.
One outcome of a recently undertaken community visioning processes was the need for, and improvement of, open space access and informal recreation for young people. This was to incorporate green play as a priority for the community. Despite their semi-rural location, local families have very few safe sites for natural un-structured play and other leisure performances especially for youth. The recent ratification of the UN ‘Right to Play’ by Welsh Government further focusses the need for this development to work as do the Future Generations Wellbeing Goals developed to further the implementation of Wales’ legislative commitment to sustainability.
Subsequently a very small community grant has been used to undertake a deliberately inclusive community engagement process drawing in local views and aspirations of the younger age groups, families, carers and other local stakeholders who have in interest in future use and access to the site. To date, efforts to engage have not been as successful as expected, a challenge which, if not overcome will under-mine the potential this much needed recreational.
This paper presents the suggested plan for the new Park so far and in so doing explores the issues around the management of community driven co-design participative processes for play development. Questions are raised in regard to the role and influence on funding, partnership formation, leadership and promoting youth engagement.