HebPlay Play Sufficiency Assessment

Scope of the Play Sufficiency Assessment

1. We understand the importance of high-quality play spaces. Although the Comhairle does not currently have a funding programme for major improvements, the Play Sufficiency Assessment will help ensure that local voices shape future priorities.
2. The PSA has been conducted at both ward level and whole place level. This means that the assessment should consider the sufficiency of play opportunities for children in specific communities, as well as across the entire planning authority area. This approach allows for a place-based understanding of play provision and ensures that the needs of children in different areas are considered. We have mapped the location of school play areas (see Appendix 1), however as the majority of these are not accessible to the public, they have not been assessed in the PSA audit (see Appendix 2). We have also shown on the whole area map where formal play spaces have been dismantled or are no longer considered fit for purpose. In addition, we have highlighted sites where new provision is proposed.

HebPlay before the digital era

1. In past generations, children in the Outer Hebrides squeezed in play around school and chores, such as filling bobbans for the weavers of Harris Tweed, cutting peats, planting potatoes and stooking hay. Most had plenty to do whether they lived in the town or in the country; Depending on the time of year, children might engage in outdoor activities like fishing, bird watching, climbing or collecting wild berries.
2. The shore was a favourite place for exploration and adventure or if they were crofting people, during the summer they would spend time on the moorland at the airidh (summer shieling huts) and tend to the grazing cattle and sheep.
3. Children’s life experiences have changed dramatically since those distant days, from Radio to Television, Walkman to iPods and mobile phones, the evolution of technology has resulted in virtual immersion in digital devices and social media with children now spending more time on screens than playing outdoors. Despite Wi-Fi and Bluetooth, many island children still find time for outdoor play and are fortunate to live close to nature. Their play is often infused with Gaelic language, rhymes, traditional songs, and stories passed down through the generations, keeping the culture alive through play and games.

"As youngsters we spent hours dodging around the boats, playing simple games inspired by the materials lying around us, fishing the rocks, mainly for peeler crabs which we could catch easily by very basic techniques, often a length of "bobban thread" with barnacle baits on the end, retrieved slowly with one or two crabs attached. Winkles would be boiled in seawater in a rusty syrup tin and eaten with a pin with no regard to hygiene or personal danger. On frosty winter evenings when the winter herring shoals came into the harbour, I recall going round the rocks with the older boys gathering herring in pails. This operation was a great adventure for us, and it was a wonderful experience to see, by torchlight, the silver herring trapped in the seaweed." - Part of a lecture given by Roddy J. Macleod (Barts) to the Stornoway Historical Society in November 2010