Green space

Renfrewshire Council is delivering a long-term, play park investment programme focused on renewing and upgrading play parks and creating new inclusive play facilities across its towns.

Sustained capital investment, partnership delivery, community consultation and inclusive design, all critical aspects in ensuring sustained impact of their investment in creating spaces for play.

Since 2021, more than £5 million has been invested across over 50 play parks and wheeled sports facilities, funded by Renfrewshire Council, the Scottish Government and community fundraising.

Innovations including Scotland’s first interactive playpark (located in the town of Erskine), incorporating digital play equipment that promotes physical activity, STEM learning and social interaction, neurodivergent communication boards, Smoke-free playpark signage introduced at 100% of children’s playparks across Renfrewshire, and wheelchair-friendly seating. The project supports key local priorities including improving children’s health and wellbeing, increasing outdoor activity, promoting social interaction, encouraging active travel, and creating welcoming community spaces for all abilities.

Rather than viewing play as a peripheral service, the Renfrewshire’s Play Park Investment Programme positions it as a central component of town centre vitality, community wellbeing, and long term resilience.

Elsewhere in Renfrewshire, the creation of a new £1 million active play facility at Lagoon Leisure Centre in Paisley, located within an existing town centre hub is underway. Designed with equal play in mind, the new play facility is expected to increase footfall to the town centre, extend dwell time for families and create new opportunities for the community to connect, locally.

Collaborative research led by the University of Glasgow explored the question: How do we green the parts of our cities and towns that need to remain grey for their primary function like seawalls, pavements and bridges? The report of this 18 month study was guidance that is relevant to all our towns. The Urban Bundle appendix in particular gives plenty of examples of ways in which towns can be greened, including:

• Tree, orchard and hedge planting in public spaces.
• Rain gardens in car parks and along streets and in car parks.
• Planted areas rather than traffic islands to separate carriageways.
• Green screens or ‘living walls’ around schools and other buildings and premises.
• Green retaining walls alongside railways and elsewhere.
• Planting as part of street furniture like benches.
• Green embankments and reed beds along watercourses.
• Green arches and pillars for climbing plants.
• Bee walls, bricks and benches.

For towns on rivers or the coast, the Coastal Bundle appendix provides a range of examples which can be used to green river and coastal areas to improve biodiversity of flood risk management measures and where we can make space on land, they can help us adapt our cities and towns to be more climate resilient to sea level rise risks.

Another way of ‘greening’ your town centre is to create a ‘parklet’: a small pavement extension, usually covering one or two car parking spaces, creating a miniature green open space in a dense urban environment. Parklets provide space for people to sit, relax and enjoy the area around them – and show how streets could be if we designed them differently. Their popularity in the UK has increased since they were first introduced in Hackney in 2015.

Glasgow and Aberdeen have each pioneered their use in city centres: why not create one in your town centre?

To get started, check out these free online toolkits which are full of inspiring examples and tips:

• Parklets: Your Guide to Creating a Pop-up Park on Your Street – from Living Streets Scotland.
• Reclaiming the Right of Way: A Toolkit for Creating and Implementing Parklets – from UCLA Luskin School of Public Affairs, USA.
• Complete Guide to Parklets and Streeteries – from Parkade, USA.