HOUSE builders could be asked to contribute £300 per property to help upgrade and maintain outdoor play areas in Darlington.

Most of the town's 40 play areas are currently unacceptable - only four meet European standards.

A £300 charge on developments of ten or more properties has already been adopted by Harrogate Borough Council and officers from Darlington have met them.

Mr Terry Collins, leisure services manager, told Darlington environment scrutiny committee on Wednesday that the best play area was at Whinfield Road and the worst at Lascelles Park.

He outlined proposals to improve and maintain all the sites for future use, including combining those which were close together.

However Coun Ron Lewis said in these days of heavier traffic, children should have more play areas, not less.

Chairman, Coun Stella Robson, said it was a matter of reducing the number of equipped areas to give fewer, better maintained ones. But they would not lose the other areas. They would remain as green spaces.

Coun Jim Ruck said the council was committed to building 1,500 new homes this year.

Mr Collins said if developers agreed to pay the £300 per dwelling, it would go towards refurbishing existing areas.

Coun Alwynne Smith would be sorry to see small play areas go. She lived opposite a green at Eastmount Road which had only four swings but they were well used, with older children taking along younger siblings.

There were not many facilities in that area and she saw the swings as important for those children.

Coun Robson said the council would have to be judicious about which it retained as open spaces and which it improved with equipment.

"Social need comes into it," she said. "It will not be easy but we have to come to a rolling programme of conversion.

"We don't want to leave things stagnating, with equipment we can't maintain, where accidents might happen."

Mr Collins said they had to look at the issue sensibly and realistically. He had already consulted residents at Red Hall and would have more discussions.

He saw it as a positive issue as they were going to provide something that was better than they already had.

If developers put money forward it could be up to councillors to decide how that money was spent. It would create a lot of flexibility and options.

Members agreed to visit some of the more contentious sites early next month before hearing the final stages of the report in late September