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We have £60,000 to spend on improving Butts Close play area in Honiton. Whenever we have money to spend on play areas we work with a variety of local children and young people to find out what play equipment they want. Throughout December 2021 and January 2022 we consulted:

  • Some pupils from Honiton Primary School.
  • Some pupils from Honiton Littletown Primary School. 
  • Parents and carers of children under the age of 5 online. 
  • We struggled to get the views of Honiton young people aged 11 to 14, so used previous consultation with Honiton young people in this age group. 

The most popular activities / pieces of equipment with each age group were: 

Under 5’s. The most popular activities, in priority order were:

  1. Bouncing, in particular a trampoline set in the ground.
  2. Sliding, in particular a slide suitable for toddlers (some mentioned steps or a grass bank up to it).
  3. Equal 3rd: Climbing, in particular a toddler friendly climbing frame. Equal 3rd: Balancing.

5 to 11 year olds. The most popular activities, in priority order were:

  1. Climbing, in particular a climbing frame (some mentioned made of ropes / nets).
  2. Bouncing, in particular a trampoline set in the ground.
  3. Sliding, in particular a slide (some mentioned a curly slide) and a zip wire.
  4. Swinging, of those that mentioned a particular type of swing basket swings were popular.

There were also a significant amount of requests for a carousel / roundabout (some mentioned with seats).

11 to 14 year olds. Despite our best efforts we only received a response from one 11 to 14 year old. Therefore we have gone back to previous consultation results in Honiton for this age group. The most popular pieces of equipment were:

  1. Ground level trampoline.
  2. Tall climbing frame.
  3. Basket swing.

What happens next

We'll tell several play companies what the most popular things are with all the age groups and they will send us their ideas of what they think should go in. When their designs come back in we'll score each design, mostly based on how well they've done what the children and young people have asked for. The design with the highest score will be put into the play area.