All Wandsworth Adventure Playgrounds to Close Post Reply

[peasepudding]

A nanny told me today that all the adventure playgrounds in Wandsworth are to close - Battersea Park, York Gardens and Kimber Road. Does anyone else know anything about this? If it's true, it means we won't have any playground facilities for over-8's left in Wandsworth at all

[rooting4tooting]

I don't know about this rumour, but the Battersea Park AP is going under some kind of consultation about how it should be in the future.
Things do need to change there. A terrible case of too many emplyees doing nowt for their money!

However, there is a good PG for the over eights in St Georges park (the one near southside shopping centre. And we are covered in commons, all with trees that they can climb and fields in which they can run and still kick a ball if they like too...

[WandsworthCouncil]

Faced with a reduction in expenditure of £70m by 2014, Wandsworth Council is exploring ways of reducing the running costs of Kimber Road Adventure Playground, in Southfields, and Battersea’s York Gardens Adventure Playground while ensuring neither faces closure – as has been the case with play areas in other parts of London.

The council is proposing to invest £150,000 in each site in order to create new open-access playgrounds – saving local taxpayers at least £147,000 each year compared to current running costs.

Under the plans, the council would replace existing equipment at Kimber Road with a bigger skate park facility than is currently housed at the site.

Meanwhile, the proposal for York Gardens would see the extension and transformation of the existing open-access playground for older children into an “all age” play site. This change would also require the replacement of existing structures with new equipment.

Both schemes once agreed would be subject to detailed design approval – and consultations would be launched into how the playgrounds should look and what kind of equipment should be installed.

The planned investments in the park come after a decision last month to consult on a proposed £200,000 capital investment at Battersea Park Adventure Playground to make it an open-access facility.

[janee]

Wandsworth Council have upped the amount they claim they need to save from £55million to £70 million. Is this poor accounting or have they spent £15 million on one of their pet projects? I haven't actually found a justification for this amount.

On the playgrounds, they seem not to understand the role of the playground workers. York Gardens Adventure Playground is set away from any housing. To remove workers will open up the play area as a recruitment ground for drug pushers and gangs. Let us not forget that it was only a few days ago that the police arrested members of one gang, but it is not the only one in the area.

Playground workers are sometimes the only positive role models that the young people have - they work in the most deprived area of the borough.

Do we really want to abandon this area and face the consequences?

[supergirl]

Hi janee, i am genuily interested in what you are saying but could you plse say more?
Are you saying that this is only an issue in york zdventure playgroung because of where it is located? Of that this is an issue for every adventure playgounds? I went to the one in battersea park a few years ago and found that the children were being children but generally well behaved. Of course, you ll say there was playground workers watching but i do genuinely find wandsworth playgrounds are places with little or no problems at least during the day. Having said that, two crime zcenes before xmas, one on falcon rd and one on syrus rd (behind waitrose) do make you wonder if there a substantial drug pb in wandsworth and if so what is the council/police doing about it?
Thanks.

[Nana46]

Wandsworth Council are being disingenuous in the way they are presenting their plans for the adventure playgrounds. They are removing the staff, who are essential to the safety and well-being of the children using the playgrounds. In Kimber Road they plan to remove the structures which form the adventure playground part and spend money developing the BMX track and skateboard park. Without the staff who are all first-aiders there will be no-one to help if a child gets injured. Also, the indoor activities, facilitated and supervised by the staff, will disappear.
The results of the consultation exercise showed that parents and users of these playgrounds want to keep the staff, so their plans fly in the face of people's needs and wishes.
There is an e-petition on Wandsworth website but I don't have the link.