Play Sites

Worcester City Council currently manages around 47 equipped, unsupervised play areas throughout the city. Below is a brief outline of the work that we do in this area.

Map of play site locations in Worcester

Inspection and maintenance of play areas

All play equipment is thoroughly inspected once every two weeks to make sure that it is safe for continued use.  Our play team are trained and certificated with The Register of Play Inspectors International (RPII).  Any findings are electronically recorded using PSSLive on a PDA.  In between inspections regular maintenance takes place on equipment and on the surrounding greenspace.  In addition all play areas are visited at least once a week to empty the bins and remove general litter. 

If we receive reports of broken glass, damaged equipment, etc between the scheduled visits we will arrange for the play area to be visited again, within one working day to resolve the problem.

Yearly inspection regime

Yearly inspections are undertaken by independent members of the Association of Play Industries to ensure our play areas continue to meet British and European safety standards.  This inspection establishes the overall level of safety of the equipment, foundations and surfaces including maintenance issues, vandalism problems, wear and tear, weather related issues and any installation faults.  In addition when new equipment is installed the equipment in question is subject to an independent post installation inspection. 

Play equipment repairs

Sometimes damaged play equipment can be repaired straight away. If this is not possible then the damaged item will be immobilised until it is possible for the repair.

If the repair requires the replacement of a standard item that is held in stock, a repair will be carried out within two working days.

Repairs requiring a non-standard item will take longer as parts will usually have to be ordered. In these cases we will try to complete repairs within 8 weeks, but this is dependent on the delivery time from our suppliers.

Occasionally, an item of equipment will be so badly damaged that it will cost more to repair the item than it is reasonably worth. In this case the equipment will be removed.

If you need to report an incident within a play area please visit our Report It page