A lot of playgrounds will not re-open on 4th July

[Missmidden]

I am a member of my local parish council and have spent much of the last few days arguing with my fellow councillors over the government guidance for the re-opening of playgrounds. However I have just lost the battle and our village playground will remain shut, which I am very unhappy about. My understanding is that many other parish and town council run playgrounds will take the same approach.

The reason for this is that the guidance is complex and vague, but when read by cautious people has been interpreted as unworkable. For example, it requires frequent sanitation of all touch areas which, for a small playground with no paid staff is not possible.

For reference, our parish council has responsibility for various allotments, park and roadside benches and gates crossing footpaths. There has been no guidance that these need regular cleaning despite being obvious "touch points". So it seems that children lose out once again from overly onerous guidance.

When the government announced that playgrounds were to open there was no mention of the guidance stopping this for many, so I fully expect there to be a great deal of anger when this news gets out, quite possibly directed at parish councillors like myself.

My request is for anyone who cares about this to e-mail your MP, local councils and anyone else to make your feelings known. I have done my best locally and contacted my own MP, but believe we need more noise about this nationally if there is any chance of the guidance being changed so that playgrounds can re-open as soon as possible.

Some people have been putting their kids over the fences into the gated play areas since the beginning. A bit tough on the kids and families that are following the rules but fortunately my kids are old enough to understand there are always people that don't follow the rules.

It's funny we can go to the local pond-woods-beach-heath, touch everything as much as we like, fondle random stones, bash sticks, sit on the dirt, dig in the sand, roll in the fox muck (ok DC don't really, but they could) - yet somehow play equipment is precious and must be kept pristine or it's plague-ridden.

I could take DC swimming in the river for a little Giardia-Crypto-E.Coli-Weil's Disease on tap -- but oh dear, the swings are a much too dangerous bio hazard.

So ridiculous.

We're in Scotland, I must admit I have huge Covid related anxieties as DH and I are both key workers so worry that the DC's are already being "exposed" so we haven't been near a shop or a park with them since all this started.

All our parks are open but I'm still a wreck about the idea so I'll be heading over with anti-bac wipes and hand gel before and after touching anything to make myself feel better if nothing else.

Children need to play. Currently many are being denied that. Mine are fine because we have a large garden with play equipment but it is not fair for those children who don’t to be denied access when people can go to the pub and the Nhs is being prepped to plan for 4th July being carnage. I’ve written to my MP but she won’t reply as she hasn’t any other time I’ve bothered to write.

I hope they open soon. Our local play area was BRAND NEW when we locked down so it has cruelly been calling to us every time we wall past it. I've been tempted to just put DS over the railing but not done that yet. I'm more than happy to take my own wipes and clean things as we go. We miss playgrounds😢 Thanks for the suggestions about MPs & councillors OP, I'll make sure I write to them.

I can’t get over the fence as I have a baby in a sling as well as the toddler, but maybe someone will do the decent thing with bolt cutters if our council can’t open it. It’s funny that everyone is currently congregating (I’m a distanced fashion) near the best climbing trees and the best place to paddle in the river etc so it’s not like having the playground closed is stopping people all ending up in the same place

Children have been playing on our local ones throughout - they're just climbing over the fences or being lifted by parents.

No one here has been doing that and I can’t pop my toddler in unsupervised and I can’t get over the fence

I just dont understand all the hysteria over play equipment. Whats the difference between that and other high touch areas in parks? Parents are much more likely to take precautions such as hand sanitiser and anti bac to use on the equipment but I sincerely doubt anyones done that when using benches, gates or bins etc.

We will be going to ours regardless.

DS is severely autistic and part of his sensory needs is the need to swing, bounce, hang and swim. We have a tiny garden so not enough space to have all the equipment we need.

We normally just about cope in the 6 weeks holidays with swimming, soft play and parks to meet these needs that are usually met through therapies at school.

We are on our knees, he still needs this sensory input so will swing on curtain poles, bounce on beds, hand off bannisters etc.

The kids have suffered enough.

Or council have actually removed the swing chains from our little park. Last week a couple of really well secured rope swings appeared over the bars and haven't been cut down yet 😁

I suspect one of our local explorer scout groups or the climbing group doing some guerrilla community service!

Luckily all the fences round here are very low so we'll just go in there anyway.

My children have been playing in unsanitised trees, and on untested impromptu rope swings for months.

I gave up steering them past playgrounds when it was confirmed that 3 months off school was not enough and that they were going to spend at least 5.5 months away from school, friends and teachers. Yet still they see other members of the community walking past our house to school. School is virtually across the road so they have to see it most of the times we go for a walk.

They have not seen their far flung family since Christmas.

I haven't been able to arrange for them to play with their friends, everone else has other priorities or social phobias.

They have not hot access to an age appropriated edication. Ds2's teacher keeps in touch, DS1's teacher has not contacted him directly since 20th March.

They can't handle phonecalls / zoom, and cannot access their scouting meeting.

Their other sports/ extra curriculars are suspended indefinitely. For DS1 in particular, this matters because with his dyspraxia all progress is hard won and easily regressed.

I can't get started on DS1's EHCP application, this may well affect secondary transition as really, he needed it before y6... I've been banging my head against the system for 3 years already.

They are 7 and 9. They have made far more than enough sacrifices for far too long already. We gave up walking on past accessible playgrounds weeks ago.

First time, my bright, lively cheerful 7 year old had spent days moping around, being angry, ranty and rude, quite frankly he was depressed which is heartbreaking to see in a child who is naturally so sunny.
We went for a walk. Outdoor gym was accessible. I let them play. Main playground locked up and overgrown. Then off the main park, a housing estate has a smaller community playground we walked in. Never before have I enjoyed such a lovely hour shivvering on a bench in a sharp wind from the sheer joy of watching my children climb, balance, swing, bounce, run. It ignited their imaginations and bought joy to their hearts.

It's not just about playgrounds, it's a metaphor for all the other combined deprivations that are harming a generation of children.

Fuck the guidence. We play at our own risk.

We’ve had enough, our garden is tiny with no room for play equipment. My kids are usually incredibly physically active and we’ve had enough. We’ve followed the rules to the letter until now but I shall be letting them climb the (little, low) fence and we will use the playground regardless. Children have been repeatedly let down throughout this, I will no longer blindly obey but use my own judgement with proper consideration of my children’s physical and mental health, they’ve sacrificed enough already.

We’ve been following the rules (through gritted teeth) so far, but if our local playgrounds don’t reopen on the 4th we’ll definitely be up for a bit of civil disobedience and will have our wipes and bolt cutters at the ready. Like many others we’ve had enough now - children really have been at the bottom of the pile in all this.

Ours are already open! The tape has been ripped off and children are playing!!

Plenty of people have been breaking into ours already - so much so that the council have put some doom-laden new banners up to put the fear of God in people - so we definitely won’t be alone!

We will be going over the fence if necessary and using hand gel afterwards.

All the local play areas in our South Norfolk village have been in use by the local children for weeks now. They’re never crowded, in fact my son is quite often the only child there! I just watch him like a hawk and use hand sanitiser afterwards and then wash his hands really well when we get home (usually only 10 mins walk). I think the whole playgrounds closing thing has been ridiculous. I can understand it for crowding reasons if you live somewhere exceptionally busy but a lot of places are deserted!

I really, really don't understand this.
I'm in the Netherlands. Our playgrounds never closed. Schools, clubs, athletics etc all reopened weeks ago. DS has been swinging, running, jumping and learning and yet we've had no new cases despite this. Nothing as a result of letting the children play and receive an education. The last case in my area was the beginning of April.
The evidence is that the virus is spread by close contact in poorly ventilated areas. That's not a child's play park. That's a bus, a train, but they're not shutting those down are they?

This is sad. I'm in Scotland and all parks opened on Monday we've spent the last 2 days over at the biggest one nearby. There are signs up encouraging to use sanitiser , social distance and to keep to the left on pathways. It wasn't that busy the first day but yesterday was really busy and I have to say every adult in the park appeared to be social distancing I think that's just a natural reaction to other people now.

I used to hate going to the park and it was usually a quick shot and home but the last 2 days we've been there for hours and I will probably go back today. Definitely appreciate it a lot more now and was lovely seeing all the children so happy.

I think I would end up just using them anyway in this situation. Children need a bit of fun now . There was lots people using them round here for a couple of weeks before they reopened them but I managed to hold off until the official date. I don't think I would have been able to much longer though.

@BaronessBomburst

I really, really don't understand this. I'm in the Netherlands. Our playgrounds never closed. Schools, clubs, athletics etc all reopened weeks ago. DS has been swinging, running, jumping and learning and yet we've had no new cases despite this. Nothing as a result of letting the children play and receive an education. The last case in my area was the beginning of April. The evidence is that the virus is spread by close contact in poorly ventilated areas. That's not a child's play park. That's a bus, a train, but they're not shutting those down are they?

Exactly. I'm generally pretty law abiding and most rules exist for good reason. But these don't. This is the worst kind of petty bureaucracy for the sake of being seen to be doing something.

Very, very few children are being harmed by Covid 19.
Playgrounds are low risk.
It
More harm is being done by them being closed. There are thousands of children becoming depressed or having it exacerbated by social isolation. Children need to chase around each other, not sedate walks. They need to develop their physical skills and propriocetion by moving and balancing in multiple directions, often not easy in the average small British home/ garden (if there is one)

Our record on childhood obesity is already hugely problematic. Either those children are being set up on an early pathway towards a range of poor health issues, or in adulthood they have to reevaluate their lifestyles and many will struggle with disordered eating routines or yo-yo dieting. Months of sedentary living with no child-friendly incentives to move is exacerbating that. I recently failed to recognise DS's classmate, partly that their hair had changed, but also the whole face-shape. Until March, this was a very active, sporty child. It's harder to undo the damage than it is to cause it. Absolutely not parent blaming- what choices have the parents had in all this? This is a society problem puting votes and the economy before lives.
Of course the economy matters. We need hospitality, and tourism etc, but that's not a reason to overlook simple things that heavily impact the youngest in our society.

I am also in the netherlands.
playgrounds never closed.
when schools reopened part time, pe was made priority.

outside the risk of infection with covid-19 is very low. uv light is very effective at killing most pathogens anyway.

I'm.in Scotland. Our playgrounds opened on Monday and it was JOYOUS.
The families in our area have been really rule abiding and the playground on the end of our street has been empty. On Monday, the noise of children playing, giggling, calling out to each other, even the occasional shriek was just lovely. They've needed it so badly. It's been raining on and off since the weekend, so the equipment has been regularly "washed" anyway!

I can see how very large, crowded playgrounds with kids from a wide area mixing could be risky, but small ones typically visited only by a smallish pool of kids who live nearby....? Low risk, further mitigated with the use of handgel before and after.
Any remaining risk is greatly exceeded by the benefits imo.

When the government announced that playgrounds were to open there was no mention of the guidance stopping this for many

This has been true about schools, dentists and many, many other activities.

The government approach is to hedge everything with a lot of vague guidance which is incredibly hard to implement in practice and expect individuals to work out the details.

They then announce that dentists/schools/etc are open and everyone phones their practice/school/etc expecting it to be true.

The risks in playgrounds are utterly fucking minimal- sunlight breaks down the virus quickly, wind dilutes expired breath and the only people not socially distancing in them are the ones least likely to get infected by a small dose; but it's daft to expect local councils to have the expertise to assess those risks.