FI16908

Request

Please provide the following information for the period 1 January 2020 to present: 

1. Inspections and maintenance

• The total number of playground inspections carried out per year.
• Copies of any inspection guidance, checklists, or policies used, particularly those referencing:
  • corrosion
  • rust
  • metal degradation 

2. Recorded defects

• The number of recorded maintenance issues or defects relating to playground equipment, broken down by year.
• Where available, the number of defects specifically categorised as:
  • corrosion
  • rust
  • structural degradation of metal components

(If defects are not categorised in this way, please provide any relevant keyword-searchable records or closest equivalent classification.) 

3. Complaints from the public

• The number of complaints received relating to playground equipment described as:
  • rusty
  • corroded
  • damaged or unsafe 

4. Incidents and injuries

• The number of reported incidents or accidents in council-managed playgrounds, per year.
• If recorded, the number of incidents where equipment condition (e.g. damage, corrosion, or wear) was noted as a contributing factor. 

5. Maintenance response

• Any policies or service standards relating to:
  • repair timeframes for damaged or corroded equipment
  • criteria for removing unsafe equipment from use

Response

1. (a) 2020 - external contractor 97 - insurance company 23

2021 - external contractor 97 - insurance company 23

2022 - external contractor 97 - insurance company 23

2023 - external contractor 97 - insurance company 23

2024 - external contractor 97 - insurance company 23

2025 - external contractor 97 - insurance company 23 

In addition, inspections are carried out in-house, but the information is not held in a manner that can be reported on.  A review of each individual inspection sheet would need to be undertaken to ascertain if the inspection was in respect of a play area or some other asset.  From our preliminary assessment, we have estimated that the cost of complying with this part of your request would exceed the ‘appropriate limit’.   The appropriate limit has been specified in regulations and for Local Government it is set at £450. This represents the estimated cost of one person spending 2½ working days in determining whether the information is held, locating, retrieving and extracting the data. I regret therefore, that on this occasion I must refuse this part your request in accordance with Section 12(1) of the Freedom of Information Act.

(b) A copy of the Council’s internal in-house inspection sheet and the inspection guidelines used by the external contractor are attached.

2. This information is not held in a format that the details can be extracted across all three inspection types and we are unable to perform a search of the records.  Each time a site is visited all defects are recorded, this means the same defect will be repeated over numerous reports until such a time as the defect has been rectified, ie no longer recorded as a defect.  Each time a site is visited all defects are recorded, this means the same defect will be repeated over numerous reports until such a time as the defect has been rectified, ie no longer recorded as a defect.

3. The Council has no records of any complaints describing the equipment in those terms.

4. The Council does not record this information.

5. Repair timeframes and criteria for removing unsafe equipment is determined by the severity of the issue and dealt with accordingly.  Specialist and insurance inspectors email any urgent/emergency work and advise of the timescale if necessary.  In-house inspectors will email or phone through any urgent/emergency work.

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