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.

Our local small mountain bike track has acquired signs that declare it will be opening soon and social distancing reminders etc. This is very odd as i'm not sure anyone had ever considered it closed...

I'm giving mine until Monday then I'm opening it myself. I don't expect anybody to take responsibility for our safety, that's my job. I deem them safe enough for us to play in so that's what we will do. It helps that we have a small kids park next to the house and because so few kids live on this estate it never gets rammed anyway. A lot of the time it is just me and my kids.

Toddlers especially love the park and they are getting a pretty crap deal if the rules are anything to go by. They shouldn't play with other kids or spend time with any other friends or family members because they can't stay far enough apart. They can't go to any toddler groups, can't take them swimming, what exactly can they do? By all accounts playing in the park is probably way down on the risk of death than crossing the road.

I'm not one for purposely breaking the rules because I can but after so long I'm doing what I can to stay sane so playing in the parks and seeing my friends and family. There is only so much of this forced nothingness that I can take.

I quite agree Don with you and almost everyone else on this thread.

If mass use occurs despite playgrounds officially remaining closed maybe that will lead to the guidance being retrospectively changed?

Having read the guidelines I can see why local councils are reluctant to open them. My kids will cope without them for the summer but many more who have no gardens won't.

In your specific situation, OP could you organised bookable sessions? Maybe open it up to Ofsted registered childcare, uniformed groups, PTAs, local children's charities so at least it's getting some use?

I did share the guidelines in my local facebook parenting group to try and find out if anyone knew if they were actually opening or not and got shutdown. The guidelines say 4th July so that's when they are opening. I did try and explain that just because the government says so doesn't mean the council will agree (like with schools) but it fell on deaf ears.

Does anyone who wrote to their MP have a template letter? Mine aren't opening in our areas and I'm not articulate enough to word something myself, but my MP is generally quite a good one, and I want to write an email emphasising there important on playgrounds for our kids, but need some help!

Birkenstock
If you are in a parished area and your council are members of SLCC or their CALC
look here
www.slcc.co.uk/guidance-for-managing-playgrounds-outdoor-gyms-green-spaces/
otherwise contact the public health team at your local council

If mass use occurs despite playgrounds officially remaining closed maybe that will lead to the guidance being retrospectively changed?

No, but if Dominic Cummings' kid fancies a go on the swings it will always have been the case that they were open.

Our village parish council were busy putting new tape and closed signs up this morning so assuming ours is staying shut as well.

Teens will ignore as per usual I expect.

Have heard that ours is openIng on saturday. Officially run by the council but the “friends of” organisation has confirmed it is reopening. Possibly with some volunteers doing some cleaning??

It's inevitable that people will take it into their own hands. It is already happening.

We've been to an always quiet, nearby village playground. It's just had the gates locked.
There is one piece that was tapped off for safety reasons before this, and that tape's been pulled off. I did explain to my DCs not to use that one because there is a specific reason. Other families may not be aware of that. (For this reason I have not taken tape off any equipment, just used what is acccessible)

There is more potential for harm with a do-nothing-the-roolz-are-too-tough approach than just getting on with routine maintainence, and letting people get on with it.

Oh and the public toilets at one park I went to today are still closed. The two toilet blocks I went to a a busy zoo later on were fine. I'm not convinced that leaving people to do the inevitble in bushes is any safer.

What would Dominic Cummings do?

Let’s bring on the civil disobedience. We need to show Boris and the clowns 🤡 we are not as docile as they think.

And yes, it’s utterly ridiculous the way the government are so vague about everything. We need a “do it at your own risk” message.

And I’ve said it elsewhere, but it’s fucking wrong that pubs (shining examples of public health and civility) are opening, but gyms and playgrounds are not.

Children have been so badly let down.

I have just seen on my council website that they aim to have all playgrounds open again by Monday. I hope others manage to do the same

Catastro
Councils are beyond livid at the way they have been sidelined by Whitehall.
They will (rightly) do nothing to take the pressure of Cummings and co

My council is one of those who’ve chosen not to reopen playgrounds due to the cost of complying with guidelines for cleaning etc. I can tell you for sure that your MP will have no say over the council’s decision. They can write a letter but the council will just shrug and say we’ve considered the MP’s request but we can’t afford it. Councils don’t care if people climb the fence or remove the tape - as long as it’s officially closed the council isn’t liable, it’s your own fault for ignoring the sign.

well this is it. You don’t need a council official do you?
Legally the council is held responsible for complying with guidelines. Putting up signs saying “at your own risk” doesn’t absolve them from responsibility. It’s all about insurance - they either have to fork out for cleaning etc or remain closed. The insurance won’t cover them to open if they’re not following guidelines.

The cleaning is ridiculous. Playgrounds never have been routinely washed down (just cleared of hazards), and the virus does not survive long out in the elements in any meaningful way to be a risk to public health. People have been touching benches and railings for months without them being sterilised or being a trigger point for catching the virus.

The danger of shrugging and letting people get on with it is that people won't know if there is a specific problem on a particular piece of equipment and will now just use it while in a dangerous state. People are just seeing tape and pulling it off. My children know that a particular den/ slide was tapped off for months and there is a structural problem with it, but now tape has been generally pulled off equipment all over, most people won't know that there is an actual risk there. Generally opening up and being specific that it is awaiting repair/replacement is the safest option.

People have always social distanced from swings, that's the first rule of the playground

Basically the government doesn’t want to be the bad guy for refusing to open playgrounds. So they announce that playgrounds can open, and deflect public anger onto the councils who can’t afford the cost of reopening. Many small parish councils are staffed by volunteers who are shit scared by the thought of being liable for failure to ensure public safety, particularly when the government guidelines say that such failure is punishable by fines or up to two years imprisonment.

We've been fence hopping into playgrounds for the last week or so. Just been to one this morning. I reached peak fury with it all.

I was hoping to get ours reopened but I suspect our insurers will say no as we won't be able to clean/disinfect the equipment. Yet the borough council is reopening theirs. Mad. Everyone will just think the parish are mean and clueless. Again.

Apparently a number of councils have said they can’t comply with the overly stringent government guidance on playgrounds, and it’s now been acknowledged that the guidance is not fit for purpose. The government plans to issue new guidance some time in the next couple of weeks. I imagine a lot of councils will wait for the new guidance before opening playgrounds.

One of the key admissions is that councils can’t possibly afford the recommended safety measures, so the government is making these measures advisory but not mandatory. So councils can say “we’re aware that ideally we need cleaners and stewards and booking systems etc, but that’s beyond our resources so realistically all we can do is put up social distancing signs”. And they will be deemed to have met government guidelines so they can open playgrounds.

Bangs head against a wall

All it needed was some disclaimers/ advice in the first place.

What are the odds that these civil servants have never been to a playground 🤦‍♀️

ListeningQuietly I am well aware. I was being deliberately bland in my comment

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

Same here

Walked past a few days ago and the grass had been cut, the tape and signs taken down. But we didnt go in because weren't sure it was open yet

Then walked past a couple of days ago and loads of local children, were playing in there. The locals, despite many not having gardens, seem to have stuck to the rules and stayed away but it seems the council have opened the playgrounds now or don't mind that people are using them again

So people can go and sit in the local pubs for 12 hours from tomorrow but some parks will still be closed?

Sod that shit. I'll be putting them over the fence