While a building and the type of equipment to be offered is yet to be finalised, Orange City Council is expected to endorse a plan to provide a temporary indoor playground at Tuesday night's council meeting.

The council recommendation includes securing a site for an indoor recreation facility from May 1 to August 30 as well as council leasing indoor play equipment for the facility.

Council staff also recommend asking for expressions of interest process for running the facility.

The project took off after Mayor Jason Hamling moved council look into the idea at a meeting on March 15.

An indoor recreational facility was part of Cr Hamling's campaign during the Local Government Elections while Cr Tammy Greenhalgh and Cr Mel McDonell have both pushed for more options for young families since their election.

"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 last month.

The staff report on the plan states council has had discussions with the Orange Ex-Services Club on securing a short-term lease for the former Police Boys Club building on Byng Street.

The building had housed Pee Wees for eight years before the business closed in July 2019, leaving a void in the city for young families to play indoors.

Council has explored a number of hire options, starting with a jumping castle from an Orange-based business through to an extra large playground, likely cost several thousand dollars a month.

It also estimates the weekly operation cost would be around $7500, excluding rent. This is based on seven-days operation and takes into account staffing, cleaning, security, utilities, hire fees and other running costs.

The report also stated opening a site would be dependent on finalising and implementing an operation plan and meeting operating costs.

The report also provided councillors with four operating options with the recommendation that council secures a site, hires equipment and issues an expression of interest to operate the site and meet all operational costs.

This option has the best chance of having the facility open for the upcoming winter.

The other options are to employ council staff to operate the site, asking for expressions of interested to run the site after council secures a premises or for council to support a private business through an expression of interest progress to establish and run the site.

To read more stories, download the Central Western Daily news app in the Apple Store or Google Play.

HAVE YOUR SAY

Send a letter to the editor using the form below