YOUR FORUM FOR PLAY, SPORTS UND LEISURE AREAS
Regular sport helps stave off illnesses, promotes individual wellbeing, helps relieve stress, improves attitude towards life and quality of life. Public exercise areas are the foundation of being able to provide citizens with accessible and free exercise options locally. Uwe Lübking from the German Association of Towns and Municipalities (DStGB) discusses the subject in this interview.
Playground@Landscape: What significance does the subject of sport and recreation have in towns and municipalities?
Uwe Lübking (DStGB): Sport and recreation are important factors in today’s society as regards the sustainability of towns and municipalities. People expect an attractive range of sport and recreation options for themselves and their children in their everyday lives. What is more, towns and municipalities can strengthen their citizens’ motivation to exercise, thereby contributing towards preventing health issues.
P@L: What does an exercise-friendly town look like?
Uwe Lübking (DStGB): Towns and municipalities should be designed so that there are play and sport facilities available close to where people live. In addition to the traditional sports halls, playing fields and swimming pools, town development must include the creation of public exercise areas. Parks and green spaces are not only spaces for local recreation, but they can also be viewed as sports and exercise areas. The possibility of combining them with exercise trails is an option which is particularly attractive.
P@L: What is the target audience for the exercise options offered?
Uwe Lübking (DStGB): In principle all citizens should be able to use them. That’s why nurseries and schools should already be places of movement and exercise. In the municipality of the future, the “pan-generational exercise area” will be as commonplace as the children’s playground of today, and the age-appropriate sports equipment will be equally as popular as the playing field. Sport and exercise can become an important building block in achieving integration and inclusion.
P@L: Many municipalities are in debt. Social spending by local authorities is at record levels. This worsens the fiscal crises that severely indebted towns and counties are currently experiencing. How much of a burden is play and sport?
Uwe Lübking (DStGB): The municipal budgetary situation remains fraught in 2015. There is a combined debt of €144.9 billion, and add to that a massive investment delay. Particularly problematic is the unchecked increase in the amount spent on social services, which will rise to over €52 billion in 2015. This, inevitably, has implications for the development of sport and recreation. The delay in investment alone sits at around €12 billion.
P@L: Where does the funding for children’s playgrounds and sports areas come from?
Uwe Lübking (DStGB): There is no alternative to a sustainable course of consolidation and the restructuring of financial relations between the federal government, individual states, and municipalities. It’s particularly important for municipalities to be relieved of the burden of social spending. If this does not happen, even with the best of intentions, the towns and municipalities will not invest in children’s playgrounds, generation parks or sports facilities. Quite the opposite in fact – the continued operation of existing facilities will be endangered. Despite, and independent of, the dramatic budgetary situation, towns and municipalities should attempt to divert funds to these important areas, or find alternative ways to finance them, e.g. financial backers, co-operative models, or other operator models. Sport and exercise are of enormous socio-political benefit. This justifies the financial engagement of the municipalities.
P@L: How do the individual protagonists embed the issue of “EXERCISE” so that it leaves a lasting impression in the municipality, that is, with the municipal decision makers?
Uwe Lübking (DStGB): The topic has already caught on in many towns and municipalities. We are experiencing an increase in urban development politics that encompasses areas for exercise. The German Association of Towns and Municipalities, together with the German Federal Association for Playground Equipment and Leisure Facilities, have published information for towns and municipalities with the documentation “Towns and Municipalities get their citizens moving – exercise trails in the public sphere”. Furthermore, awareness of the subject of “exercise in the town” must repeatedly be raised in municipal politics.
P@L: The FSB trade fair is coming and is casting its shadow: What does a trade fair need in order to attract municipal decision makers?
Uwe Lübking (DStGB): What’s important for municipal decision makers is to learn about new trends and the direction new developments are taking in the fields of sports and pools facilities and amenity areas. Also important is being able to exchange views in forums. A supporting programme designed for the target audience is as essential to the event as an answer to the question: How do I design urban living spaces in the auspices of demographic change and the varied leisure time pursuits of the citizens.
P@L: How important is the playground equipment manufacturing industry in the municipality?
Uwe Lübking (DStGB): Exercise trails, playgrounds and leisure facilities must be designed in such a way that they reach their intended audience and are used optimally. To achieve this, towns and municipalities need advice and recommendations. Equipment manufacturers can actively support them during the planning stages. They can also provide municipalities with information on financing models from their own experience. What’s important is that the towns and municipalities feel that they are being competently advised and supported.
The interview was conducted by Thomas R. Müller (Playground@Landscape)
