Survey play area and church (5)
I believe the answer is:
recce
'survey' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)
'play area and church' is the wordplay.
'play area' becomes 'rec' (short for recreation ground).
'and' means one lot of letters go next to another.
'church' becomes 'CE' (abbreviation for Church of England).
'rec'+'ce'='RECCE'
(Other definitions for recce that I've seen before include "Scout" , "Military survey" , "Survey (sl.)" , "Case" , "Survey to obtain information" .)