The borough is situated in the heart of some stunning rural scenery and with a large proportion of the area within the Peak District National Park. While access to open land for recreation purposes has improved in recent years, the public transport infrastructure still presents challenges in gaining easy access for families and young people for play opportunities within the National Park. The development of ‘child friendly’ visitor centres in Castleton for example, nature trails and activities run by the Park Ranger Service have contributed in this respect.
Parks and green open spaces within the townships and villages still provide the most accessible opportunities for children and young people to play. With this in mind, our strategy reflects the need to identify, audit and maintain and improve public open space the borough has responsibility for. Due to the small size of villages and town ships we have limited areas of accessible public open space and these spaces need to be maintained to a high standard to make best use of the scares resource.
The rural environment that exists over most of the borough also results in limited access to larger urban leisure activities for children and young people for example leisure parks, cinemas and larger formal recreation facilities. This makes the need for more informal play opportunites and access to play provision even greater.
Over recent years the borough council parks section has achieved a significant programme of improvement in fixed play facilities and sought to create a better experience of park use through capital improvements. This programme continues but will be significantly enhanced through the use of BIG funding. In reviewing the play provision within the borough and the evidence from consultation we have recognised that the provision of good quality free play spaces will best use resources to achieve sustainability.
Schemes such as Play Ranger programmes will not succeed in rural environments with small child populations in isolated communities. In order for these schemes to be successful there needs to be a critical mass that will ensure the success and this is difficult to achieve within the borough. We have however recognised the advantage of some mobile programmes such as skate board parks and play buses. We will use the BIG funding to accelerate our programme of improvements and to fill the gaps in provision identified through our audit and consultation.
The figures in the table show High Peak in the context of the Countywide picture and relate to the Formula Spending Share, which is used by central government to allocate finance to the eight district councils within Derbyshire. It is based on calculations involving:
The old DCC Social Services Department used this formula when allocating new resources on a countywide basis.
This is based on the numbers identified in the 2001 census updated to mid 2004 estimates. The percentage figure in the next column represents the proportion of Derbyshire children living in each district council area.
These are the total number identified in the Children in Need census undertaken in February 2005. Again, the proportion of the County’s children in need by district council is identified in the next column, and the percentage of the local child population deemed to be in need is in the third.
Numbers here are averages for the period April 05 – January 06. Data not available for Derbyshire Dales as Dales numbers are allocated on a 60/40 basis between High Peak and South Derbyshire. This reflects the PCT boundaries.
Numbers are for February 2005.
Numbers for year ending January 06
Numbers refer to 2003 for under 18 conceptions. Amended version refers to the period 2001 – 2003.
Numbers refer to the November 2005 figure submitted by Connexions.
Numbers refer to calls received by the police for service between April and September 2004.