District Playground ­ Mascot Park

As we’ve got the playground in Booralee and we’re working in Sir Joseph Banks Park, I don’t want anyone to think we’ve forgotten other parts of the City in the provision of playgrounds for our youngest residents.

Last week we approved the commencement of a design brief for a district playground at Mascot Park.
 
Whereas a regional playground is designed to cater for the widest possible age ranges in children, a district playground is more specific and for Mascot Park we can cater for the younger age groups.
 
Again, we’re matching facilities with demographics. In the past five to 10 years we’ve seen increases in residential development in this area, boosted by our Mascot Station precinct development and the Airport Rail Link.
 
The latest census statistics we have shows that the area around Mascot Park – Gardeners Road to the north, Botany Road to the east, King Street to the south and Alexandria Canal to the west – show that 22% of the population are children aged 0 to 19.  A significantly larger proportion of children are in the 0-4 year age group – those for whom a playground is important.
 
There are a lot of residential flat and unit buildings in this area, which makes the provision of playgrounds even more important.
 
Mascot Park and the adjoining Mascot Oval are approximately 3.8 hectares in size and the Mascot Park section is largely undeveloped, with scattered trees, gardens beds, seat and older style playground equipment at the southern end.
 
What we’re looking at is a large scale district playground at the Coward Street end, which our research shows is the most appropriate location to cater for existing and future residents.
 
We also intend to further embellish the playground with a cycle/walking/jogging path in a north-south direction that will, again, cater for local residents.  There will also be picnic areas, covered seating, security lighting, bins, drinking fountains and Council’s landscape team will ensure that this area will look great and inviting.