Standards and responsibility
The playground logbook: what to record, and the three countries that ask for one
Belgium, France and the Netherlands each name the document in their rules. What goes in a playground logbook, one line per round, and how to start one today.
Short answer
A playground logbook holds four things: the list of equipment, the written plan of levels and intervals, the rounds actually walked with findings and closures, and the reports from the annual main inspection. Three countries in this market name the document in their rules, under three names: logboek, logbook and registre. Everywhere else it is simply how you show, afterwards, that the site was looked after.
There is an uncomfortable asymmetry in this subject. An inspection that was done and not written down is, at the moment somebody asks, impossible to tell apart from one that never happened. That is why the countries in this market that have written a rule about playgrounds all ended up naming the same object: a book in which the operator writes down what was checked, when, by whom and what happened next. The names differ. The book does not.
Three names for the same document
| Country | The word | What the rule asks the operator to keep |
|---|---|---|
| Netherlands | Logboek | Under the WAS 2023 the manager keeps an up-to-date logbook showing that the equipment is installed, maintained and used safely, beside the approval issued for each piece of equipment before use. |
| Belgium | Logbook | Under the royal decrees of 28 March 2001 the operator carries out a risk analysis, draws up an inspection and maintenance scheme and keeps a logbook. The FPS Economy provides a tool for the first two. |
| France | Registre | Under decree 96-1136 whoever operates or manages a collective play area draws up a maintenance plan and keeps a register available for inspectors. |
What the three share is more useful than what separates them. The document is written in advance, not reconstructed afterwards. It is kept by the person who runs the site, not by the manufacturer. And it is shown on request, which means it has to exist before the request. If your country is not in the table, that last point still describes the logbook's job.
What goes in, whichever country you are in
The inventory
A list of what is actually standing there: type, location, a photograph, and what you know about the year it was bought and who supplied it. Include what was built on site, what came with the property, and the surfaces, fences and gates. Keep equipment that has been removed, marked as removed; its history is part of the record.
The plan
One page: how hard the site is used, what follows from that for the interval of the routine visual inspection and the operational inspection, and who walks each of them. In Belgium this is what the risk analysis and the inspection and maintenance scheme are; in France it is the maintenance plan. In any country it is the page that turns «we look at it now and then» into a routine somebody else can take over.
The rounds
| Field | Why it is there |
|---|---|
| Date and level | Shows the interval was kept, and which kind of inspection it was. |
| Carried out by | A name, not «the board» or «staff». |
| Equipment and points | Shows the scope: the whole site, not only the swing. |
| Findings, with a grade | How urgent, and therefore what happens next. |
| Action, owner, closing date | What turns a finding into something other than a note. |
The last line is the one most often missing. A finding without a closure is an open question that stays in the record, and a list of five-year-old open findings is worse than no list: it shows that the routine existed and was not followed.
The reports
The report from the annual main inspection is one document in the set, not the set. It shows the state of the site on one day of the year, judged by a competent person. What shows the site was looked after on the other days is your own logbook of routine visual and operational inspections. The findings in that report belong in the same follow-up as your own: action, owner, date, closure. A report that sits unread in an inbox documents that you were told.
How long to keep it
Longer than feels necessary. A piece of equipment's history is interesting across its whole life, and questions about an accident can arrive long afterwards. Keep the logbook as long as the equipment stands, and keep the annual main inspection reports after it has gone. Whether your country sets a retention period for these records is a national question, and this guide does not answer it, because there is no single answer across this market.
Paper, spreadsheet or app
A paper logbook in the caretaker's cupboard is a real logbook, and a spreadsheet is a real logbook until three people share it and two of them stop. What starts as evidence turns fairly quickly into knowledge: which equipment costs the most maintenance, which surfacing needs topping up every spring, whose chains last. That knowledge is what an organisation loses every time the person holding it moves on.
Lekko produces the record as a by-product of the round rather than as a second job: the inventory, the history per item, findings with grade and closure, and one document you can hand over. See how often each level is needed and the checklist itself.
Questions and answers
Do I need a playground logbook?
Three countries in this market name one in their rules: the Netherlands (logboek, under the WAS 2023), Belgium (logbook, under the royal decrees of 2001) and France (a register, under decree 96-1136). Whether your own country does is a national question. Everywhere, the logbook is the only thing that shows afterwards that the site was looked after, which is reason enough to keep one.
What should a playground inspection report contain?
Per round: the date and the level, who walked it, which equipment and points were covered, what was found with a grade, and the action, the owner and the closing date. Per site, behind the rounds: the inventory, the plan of levels and intervals, and the reports from the annual main inspection.
How long should playground inspection records be kept?
As long as the equipment stands, and the annual main inspection reports after it has been removed. Whether a national rule sets a minimum period differs across this market and is not answered here; keeping the record for the life of the equipment is longer than any such period is likely to be.
Can the logbook be digital?
The three rules described above name a document, and a digital record that can be exported or printed is a document. What matters is that it can be shown: what was inspected, when, by whom, and what happened to the findings. If your national authority asks for a particular form, that form is the one to follow.
We have nothing written down from before. Where do we start?
With the inventory and one routine visual inspection. Those two give you a baseline and take an afternoon. Do not try to reconstruct a history you do not have: a logbook that honestly starts today is credible, and one assembled after the fact is not.
Sources
- EN 1176 and EN 1177 – CEN/TC 136 Sports, playground and other recreational facilities and equipment (CEN-CENELEC)
- CEN-CENELEC: European Standards, and how members adopt them nationally
- NVWA: Het Warenwetbesluit attractie- en speeltoestellen (WAS) in het kort (Nederlandse Voedsel- en Warenautoriteit)
- FPS Economy (Belgium): Playground and playground equipment safety
- Décret n° 96-1136 du 18 décembre 1996 fixant les prescriptions de sécurité relatives aux aires collectives de jeux (Légifrance)
This article is written by August and gives a practical account of the requirements. It does not reproduce the standards EN 1176 and EN 1177, and it does not replace the annual main inspection by a competent person. If you are unsure what applies to your playground, ask a competent person or the relevant authority in your own country.
Less fuss. Lekko remembers.
Ready-made checklists built from EN 1176 and EN 1177, a reminder before every inspection, and a report you can hand over in one click.