A winter warmer for parents: Mayor Jason Hamling's Orange indoor playground plan

Making good on one of his ticket's council election promises, Cr Hamling will put forward a mayoral minute at Tuesday's Council meeting asking for Orange City Council staff to investigate a temporary indoor playground being established in time for winter.

"We heard loud and clear from residents of Orange, and I'm probably not the only candidate vying for election that heard that same thing, about the lack of an indoor play centre for mums and kids," Cr Hamling said.

"Even the older kids, there's nothing much there."

Cr Hamling pointed out families are the third biggest demographic of visitors to Orange.

"So we need to start thinking about catering for those families. Once you get here, there's not much [for families] if it's a cold day in Orange," he said.

The upgrading of playgrounds has also featured in Orange City Council's community consultation for the drafting of its Strategic Plan while the draft Local Housing Strategy notes 42 per cent of households are couples with children.

With March almost half done, Cr Hamling agreed time was a factor in getting a report together.

"We'll see what we can come up with that's temporary this year leading on to hopefully something that's more permanent. Talk to businesses that already do this sort of thing in other regional centres and see what we can do to help them establish something in Orange," Cr Hamling said.

Identifying a suitable venue and the type of equipment to be installed will be part of the staff investigation.

"It's about that socialisation too, it can be a bit lonely if you're a mum with three or four kids under a certain age, so it's about letting them get out and socialise with other mums as well.

"I just want to see what the staff can come back with, what options. See what's available and see what we can do and go from there."

The indoor playground is one of three mayoral minutes Cr Hamling for Tuesday night's meeting with the second recommending Council supports the Australian Local Government Association's framework for funding priorities heading into the Federal Election in May.

The third related to the Central NSW Joint Organisation board meeting on February 24 and asked for council to acknowledge the information in the report.

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