# Green, amber and red: playground status

> **Short answer:** The status colour is worked out from when the next inspection falls due and whether there are open defects. Green means everything is within its interval, amber that an inspection is approaching its due date, and red that something is overdue or that there is an open critical defect. The status of a piece of equipment is the worst of its three levels.

Category: Understanding the system · Updated: 2026-08-09 · Published by: Lekko · Canonical address: https://lekko.tech/eu/help/status-colours

How the status colour is worked out, why an open critical defect always shows red, and what the colour does not tell you.

## How to do it in Lekko

Each piece of equipment gets a colour, based on when its next inspection falls due and whether it has open defects.

- **Green:** everything is in order. No inspection is close to falling due, and there are no open critical defects.
- **Amber:** an inspection is approaching its due date and should be planned.
- **Red:** something is overdue, or there is an open critical defect. This needs action.

The overall status of a piece of equipment is the worst of the three levels. An open critical defect always makes it red, however far away the next inspection is.

Defects also carry a coloured edge on their card showing the severity: red for critical, amber for moderate and grey for minor. Closed defects are shown in grey, so the open ones are easy to pick out.

## Why the worst level decides

A piece of equipment can have a fresh routine visual inspection and an annual main inspection that fell due two months ago. A status that showed the average would show green on equipment that is missing its most important inspection, so the colour follows the worst of the three levels.

The same logic makes an open critical defect always red. Critical means the equipment should not be used as it stands, and that does not change because the next inspection is a long way off.

What the colour does not tell you is whether the playground is safe. It tells you whether the routine has been kept and whether anything found is still open — which is a claim about your process, not about the equipment. Only the round itself says anything about the equipment.

> Lekko builds on EN 1176 and EN 1177. It says that the equipment has been checked against those standards — not that any national requirement has been met. What makes the standard binding is national law, and that differs across the countries this market covers, so we do not claim to know what applies where you are.

## Questions and answers

### Why is a piece of equipment red when every inspection is done?

There is an open critical defect. Close it with a description of the remedial action and the status updates. If the fault has not actually been put right, the equipment should not be in use.

### Can we change when something turns amber?

Yes. Under the settings for inspections you control how far ahead of the due date the warning starts, per level. Amber is a reminder you set yourself; red is a fact.

## Sources

- [EN 1176 and EN 1177 – CEN/TC 136 Sports, playground and other recreational facilities and equipment (CEN-CENELEC)](https://www.cencenelec.eu/areas-of-work/cen-sectors/consumer/sports-goods/)

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This guide is published by Lekko – https://lekko.tech/eu/help/status-colours