National trust not opening outdoor playgrounds

[Snailsetssail]

Is anyone else getting frustrated with the National Trust not reopening their outdoor playgrounds? I only pay NT membership because we visit a local site with a good play area that my small children love. There are no plans to reopen it soon, despite the government advice allowing it.

@SunbathingDragon

The government advice isn’t as simple as just allowing it though. Places are understandably scared of ending up with a manslaughter charge so are taking ultimate precaution and not opening (this extends to all kinds of places like some public toilets etc).

I agree this is a horribly difficult time for some children right now, as well as many adults and businesses.

'Understandably'? Seriously? How on earth would anyone ever prove that you caught Covid in a playground as opposed to anywhere else? Our local council has signs up basically saying "assess the risk for yourself" blah blah (translation: you're a grown adult - puzzle it out for yourself), which presumably covers them in the event of this rather unlikely scenario. And many councils and attractions seem to have quite happily interpreted the government advice to allow them to open.

Given there are plenty of attractions near me with open playgrounds etc, I'm not going to pay for ones with closed playgrounds, so its their call.

@Merinocool

It might not be as simple as just opening it though. My husband works somewhere with a play area and our council said they would have to have a member of staff on the gate counting the numbers all day and they would have to have periods of times for cleaning it so they made the decision to keep it closed as they don’t have the resources for it.

Ours just took the lock off, removed the tape and let the kids in.

Waddesdon play ground is open with loads of tied down hand sanitiser.

The numbers are so reduced there were only a handful of dc there.

So I can't understand it no. They are usually only small play areas anyway!

All the playgrounds near me opened on day 1. Some of the parish councils have gone a bit crazy removing swings etc but my two closest are just open as normal. The RHS has opened its playground at Wisley so if they can, I don’t see why NT priorities can’t.

I can’t say I’m surprised, none of our council parks are open yet. DS is very sad.

I am very disappointed in the NT. it is clearly cheaper for them to take the membership money and not open up the properties.

I am no longer a fan.

I happened to pass my nearest playground when the council worker turned up at 10am Sat 4th July and cut the metal tie off the gates and moved on.

1.5 miles away across a council boundary, the village playground is still closed off with a new padlock on the gate and dire warnings about it being at your own risk.
I am aware that one piece of equipment was already taped off out of order prior to March so my DCs understand why they are banned from that as the tape has been pulled off that one.

Its not about a manslaughter charge for COVID, its about vague government guidance and equally vague advice from insurers.

Government advises regular cleaning, controlling numbers, social distancing, but no advice as to how practically this would be implemented without a team of staff. Insurers say we need to have taken reasonable steps to follow government guidance. No idea of what reasonable steps are.

If a child has an injury on the playground and the insurers decide we haven't followed government guidance are we insured? No idea.

The key function of the NT is the preservation of important buildings and areas of natural beauty

The provision of playgrounds isn’t central to their mission at all

So I can see why they begin with the core activities

Can you just turn up at all NT sites now? Or do you have to wait for ticket release?

I must be alone in my view, which is when I visited our local NT I was pleased to see the playground closed! Less potential infection and less potential visitors. Lovely!

@Lucindainthesky Do you have children?

Children are NOT vectors of Covid19. To revel in them being unable to play is unsavoury.

Children seem to being blamed for all sorts. I was going to go to a PYO today with my two but they say you need one adult for each child under 10. It’s infuriating!

@LittleBearPad And yet some parks are insisting one adult only per family group - people are making their own rules up in a unscientific attempt to be 'safe'.

@LittleBearPad that’s bonkers!

Our local playground is ope, but with a rule that only one adult is allowed to accompany children. So we can’t walk down as a family on a Sunday morning as we used to. Bonkers as surely the maximum amount of adults you would bring anyway is 2- it’s hardly a place that adults tend to congregate without children!

Yes, getting really annoyed about this. I have emailed and had no response as yet.
It means there’s a lot of tree climbing going on!

80% of staff are furloughed with redundancies to be announced this week. £200m losses expected this year. Volunteers not back yet as that's not fair to furloughed staff.So I guess playgrounds aren't top of the list of priorities. Maybe you could just enjoy the extensive gardens and spaces that are open - or go to the park.

I passed a playground in a park a couple of days ago. Full of kids and parents. No one controlling numbers and didn't notice hand sanitiser anywhere. Did think it looked a dead certain for passing Covid infection around.

Playgrounds aren't open here. The council have said that while there are higher than average numbers locally they won't be opening them as their staffing priorities are elsewhere

We were at 3 different NT properties last week and I’m delighted the playgrounds are closed, it keeps the number of families that just want a socially cleansed playground down.

Go to a local park if you want the swings.

Or bring your children if you want a walk in the woods/parkland/gardens and can manage to let them make there own fun.

Tristatearea What a horrid, judgy post. It’s just full of contempt. Your visit isn’t more worthy than another family’s who might want to use the playground.

@Tristatearea
What a horribly naive and nasty post!

Everytime I have been to a NT attraction it has been full of older people and young families. Like it or not, the playgrounds are a huge part of the reason many young families pay entrance to lots of place or sign up for a membership. We have an anbundance of woodland and parkland in our area that's free to access so I think many families can't justify paying NT prices for these things alone.

When my friends and I (all with going families) all go to NT places we will most likely also eat at the cafe too, paying yet more money to NT which will ultimately enable them to preserve important sites for future generations to avoid.

There is nothing morally inferior or dubious about providing a playground for a demographic that undoubtedly contribute a huge amount of money towards the NT. In the same way that the gift shop often caters to older people. Get off your high horse and take the time to question why you find playgrounds so abhorrent! What is the problem with making some concessions to children and young families ?

@Tristatearea I pay my NT membership mainly for the playgrounds and activities on offer for children.

I live in the countryside- if I wanted to walk I can do it for free in places of places.

I’m annoyed at paying a lot of money for membership to somewhere that I can’t actually access still, despite government advice allowing it to open.

I am laughing a little at being naive.

NT exists simply as a way for the upper working class to feel that they are wealthy and somehow “own” part of the grand estates that they are walking on. It isn’t

It’s a great way to keep active as membership encourages you to visit and I’m not knocking the work that volunteers or staff do but a quick scan of any of the playgrounds would tell you that Rupert’s mummy has only brought him here to avoid being in the town council playground on a Friday afternoon so she can sit on her phone and ignore him without thinking that he is going to get a needle stick injury.

@Tristatearea
Your idea about why the NT exist is patently wrong. Sure, there are people that may view membership as a bit of a status symbol, but that hardly forms part of the organisation's mission statement.

You aren't naive because of your belief that some parents prefer to use NT playgrounds to get away from the riffraff. You're naive to think that the NT could survive in its current form and preserve all the parkland, woodland etc that you love so much without money from young families. If building playgrounds increases the money they have available to do their important work then I would suggest that it is a fantastic investment for the NT and you're objections on the basis that playgrounds aren't strictly necessary are irrelevant.