A BACKLASH is expected over suggestions that South Lakeland District Council may hand responsibility for its children's playgrounds to parish councils and community groups, reports Andy Bloxham.

SLDC's overview and scrutiny committee has recommended to the cabinet that the council stops paying for the replacement, maintenance and most of the inspection of its 51 playgrounds.

But parish and town council representatives have reacted angrily to the proposal, claiming they simply do not have the resources to look after the playgrounds properly.

Under the proposals, the parish or town councils or community groups would pay for the replacement and maintenance of equipment while SLDC would provide free quarterly inspections. The proposals would have the advantage of opening up new grants to parish councils that the district cannot access.

Passing over all the replacement and refurbishment costs would save SLDC around £2.1 million. The proposed changes would also save the council part of the £60,000 a year it spends on inspection, spare parts and replacement of small items.

Grange-over-Sands mayor Coun Robert Leach said: "The provision of play areas should be a district responsibility. We don't have the resources to run them."

And the vice chairman of Sedbergh Parish Council, Coun Dorothy Blair, said: "If they expect groups to take over their playgrounds, what the hell are we paying our council tax for?"

However, Lakes parish councillor Alan Green, of Grasmere, said it made little difference whether parishes or the district paid for the facilities, it was still coming from the taxpayer.

At the SLDC meeting, Coun David Foot said it was "unsustainable" for the council to keep raising sums of money for playgrounds in South Lakeland.

He said SLDC should stop its monthly inspection of playgrounds and replace it with a free quarterly inspection and encourage weekly checks by the parish council or community group. In the same discussion, councillors also decided to recommend buying handheld computers for their inspectors to save them time.

Coun Avril Dobson said it would be tough to find funding for all the playgrounds in South Lakeland's towns: "It's all right for a parish council but Kendal has at least 12. It's a heck of a lot of work to get community involvement for that many."

Several play areas in the district have already been taken over by community groups or parishes. In Sedbergh, a mothers' group raised around £60,000 in a year to run a play area. At Queen's Park, in Windermere, volunteers raised £82,000. Shirley Crisp, of the Queen's Park Children's Playground Committee, said: "Communities can rally round to fund raise but I think if maintenance was handed to the groups it would be a bridge too far."

At the same meeting, councillors also heard SLDC did not have the funds to enforce its own rules on dog fouling, which meant irresponsible dog owners were going unpunished. Chris Fidler, SLDC's assistant director of environmental health, said: "We have renewed a number of signs but we don't have the resources to actually go out there."

SLDC does not have a statutory duty to enforce dog fouling rules but councillors suggested officers try to find a solution.