Save Battersea Park Adventure Playground from proposed changes
Please join us in trying to stop the Wandsworth councils proposed decision to change the Adventure playground forever. They hope to save money by removing all staff - so no more supervision, mentoring local teenagers, no more safe space to hang out in the long school holidays for local kids living in the high rise tower blocks. They also plan to remove all the amazing risky equipment like the tyre rope swing, the high silver slide, the climbing frame tree house etc. We are meeting in the Hall adjacent to Sacred Heart Church just off Trott Street (Battersea High Street) SW11 3DS this Wednesday 13th June from 18.30pm to plan for our visit to Town Hall 20th June when the decision makers next meet. Come along and help us however you can. Please! Elizabeth O
Comments
Note that York Gardens and Kimber Road Adventure playgrounds are also under threat. The cost of the council's proposals is £500,000 (that is to tear down the structures and replace them with inappropriate ones). The cost of running the Adventure Playgrounds with staffing is £286,000 per year - that amounts to just over £2 per year per household (60% of which are flats). Wandsworth Council can afford the staffing - they are choosing to spend their money elsewhere.
Given the launch of the City Safe campaign on Saturday, how are teenagers going to learn independence safely, given the cutbacks to youth clubs as well.
Here for more information and to sign the petition on line.
Please what are the Council arguments, why they tell they want to change the playgrounds?
Their argument is simply that they need to save money. However, we argue that they are choosing to spend money in ways which suit them, rather than ways which benefit the whole community.
The Council propose to tear down the structures which have been built up over years because, for insurance purposes, they need to have supervision. By replacing them with 'safe' commercially produced equipment they claim they can remove staffing. However, the 'safe' equipment does not provide the challenge for children over 10/11 and the lack of staffing means there is no variation, no additional activities.
They say they need to implement austerity measures and save money in Wandsworth - by removing staff and altering existing playgrounds. We are asking
the committee involved to create additional community facilities within the playgrounds,
to tackle anti-social behaviour by providing more on-site activities. Also with
obesity adding a current cost to NHS of £5bn it is our belief that the exciting
risk taking playground attractions must be added to rather than removed to
engage the young teenagers living in flats throughout the Battersea area.
Thats a rotten idea. It's a brilliant place and always has been. Where should the young guys go instead for a bit of excitement? They will save money here and spend more on policing bored kids. Pointless and short sighted.
Miranda
Please join us with your family and friends next Wednesday at Wandsworth Town Hall from 6.30pm to say just that to the people meeting to decide finally what to do with our playgrounds! The Battersea adventure playground was designed by and built by parents and kids 40 years ago, has never had anything more than bumps, scratches and splinters to deal with and is manned by dedicated family people who do so much more for the local kids than any of theses decision making councillors!
Devil's advocate here .. did they not suggest charging for entrance to the playground in the Park? Would that not be a preferable option to having it closed down/changed.
Flag up the mast .. i don't have young children .. it was more rough and ready when my daughter played in there .. it didn't exist when I played in the Park.
So - if closure -v- fees are the only options .. what is more beneficial?
Vivian, they tried to apply a £2.50 charge per entry which is an enormous amount for parents and friends per visit! They could use their bouncy castle as a regular way of making money or reduce the price per head to 50p which even younger kids may be able to afford. But the biigest irony of all is that in the next 2 years which are looking like being the worst economically they want to spend £500k to alter the playground! Where will the kids go if not to the playgrounds - onto all the streets around the local area where you can guarantee they will end up in trouble!
Fees I suspect will mean that only the middle class kids could go. Unless there's a way for the poorer kids to go for free. I'd be up for that.
The chances are its the poorer kids who get into trouble when they've got nothing to do.
Absolutely agree - but we need to convince the committee that the discussions need to continue to find the right solution!
In my experience very few teenagers use these facilities now and those arguing about it are not the people who actually use the facility.
There are hundreds of opportunities for teenagers in our borough - loads of sport, all schools offer extensive extra curriculum activities, scouts, guides, sea cadets etc etc, the adventure playgrounds tend to be used by the under 13s anyway.
The schools need to encourage teenagers to take part with clubs etc that already exist - adventure playgrounds are not really the solution to children roaming the streets.
The changes would also mean that the playground can remain open for longer than is currently possible. It would be available for use by young people at all times the park is open, seven days a week.
They would also offer a saving to local taxpayers of £130,000 a year and mean there was no need to introduce an admission charge, which people have said quite clearly they are opposed to.
The council is having to cut its spending by £70m as a result of the nation's economic difficulties. The existing adventure playground costs local council tax payers £225,000 a year. The lion’s share of this is spent on staffing costs plus the cost of repairs and maintenance to the play equipment. In the current financial situation, regrettably this is no longer sustainable.
Our aim therefore is to carry on providing an exciting and challenging adventure playground for youngsters - and to do so at a time when many other local authorities are actually closing theirs. Keeping the playground open and avoiding the need to charge any admission fee are the two outcomes our residents told us were their priorities.
Wandsworth manages more than 200 playgrounds and play areas in parks, commons and housing estates. Over the past four years £2.5 million has been spent on maintaining and improving these facilities for young people.
The council also provides a grant worth £125,000 a year to a local charity which provides an adventure playground on Wandsworth Common specifically aimed at children with disabilities.
The council's cabinet member for children’s services Kathy Tracey said: “Although we are having to make difficult decisions in order to save money, I am proud that we are avoiding closing any playgrounds, as is happening in other parts of London.
“We understand how valued and well-loved these play areas are and that is why our focus has been on offering something new and exciting where changes have to be made – as well as keeping them free to use.”
Wandsworth right now has something unique.
Adventure Playgrounds. The uniqueness lies in the word "ADVENTURE".
Where else in London can one find a place where children (6 up) can go and discover their abilities in an environment that, to them, looks and feels like a escape from urban life?
These Adventure Playgrounds express much more the feeling of Freedom and Fun than the structures Wandsworth now plan to put into place.
They allow for imagination and dreams, a feeling of being in the wilderness, an escape.
Before the decision meeting next Wednesday, I would ask you to go there.
Sit and watch. Watch how the children play, what they play at.
It's not just swinging, or climbing frames.
They play in an imaginery world of hiding, building, creating, sharing, grouping, making, connecting.
The place is an escape - an escape from everyday life - an escape to a place where they can be children free from constraints.
The playgrounds Wandsworth intends to replace these with do not give a child that escape.
They are still in their urban dwelling, constrained and prescribed. There is no imagination allowed for, no dreams of adventure. Purely structures to work off some energy.
Furthermore. The people who manage the site are going to loose their jobs. And these people are so in need of a job, especially in today's climate. They are good at what they do, kind to the children and caring.
I understand it only cost £2 per household per annum to maintain the playgrounds as they are. Why not spend the money you wish to spend on new all singing all dancing urban replacement playgrounds, on these. Expand on what you hold right now. Nuture it for it is unique.
Come on Wandsworth - show us your community spirit.
Andy, you may not have noticed those cutbacks but then you don't live near the Winstanley. There is very clear preferential treatment given to some areas of the borough at the cost of other areas.
is important to keep spaces like the adventure playgrounds open for
children to make contacts outside of their usual environment. Playgrounds offer
this freedom - where everybody has the same opportunities. It is the necessity
more so for the kids 6-13 that are not constantly guarded carefully but their
guardians.- but for those who have to find their own ways. Where else can they
go, - where else can one create
soft adult supervision and offer ideas and inspiration. At the adventure playground
children from 8 years up can register and can come and create a home away from
home for themselves during the holidays. They get supervised, fed, looked
after. This can not be replaced by any structure – however well designed. If
they take away the people who work there will be no one to talk to – no one
looking out for them. I think the focus should go on improving the existing
services and integrating them more into their surrounding. Link in voluntary
workers and make more programs available to all.
It is so short
sighted and very sad to see the council trying to close their eyes, ears and minds.
It is clearly a very ignorant approach.
I will try my upmost to be there to support you all on Wednesday.
Who draws it and where would the line be drawn???
If there are measure to be made it must be across the board... who plots the board I have no idea .. but in these timeshard decisions have to be made.
We need more entertainment for young people. I live in a 'posh' bit of Battersea but we are having trouble from drug taking youths and car vandalism. Youngsters have nothing to do ...two parks some people say...but there is a limit to kicking a football around. They need a Pool hall, table-tennis ...even boxing (much as I don't like it) ... As someone else said it makes economic sense in the long run. Why do they think kids join in rioting...How much has that cost us all? And that is quite apart from the moral dimension that there is enough money in this area to tackle it as is evidenced by the prices of houses and continuous 'improvements' being made to them.
A moderate increase in Council Tax would help those who need it most.
Do they have less problems with kids taking drugs on the streets etc
Has Lambeth got manned Adventure Playgrounds that have made a major contribution to tackling youth issues - could you point me to the evidence.
This thread appears to be a council bashing exercise with little in the way of facts or evidence - no adventure playgrounds are being closed. What is the current usage of adventure paygrounds by youths aged 13-16 ?
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