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.

@DobbyTheHouseElk

I don’t think you’ve understood my post.

If the NT playground needs a safety check to see if it’s safe to open who is going to check the equipment? If the relevant staff are furloughed ? If it needs a screw here or there, who will do it when the staff are furloughed?

It’s not about hand sanitizer or one way systems. It’s the weekly safety check to make sure the wooden planks your DC is walking on is safe. The ropes are secure etc.

Maybe the NT style attractions aren’t suffering the same way as the NT.

Further to Dobby’s post: Children's playgrounds should be inspected annually by an independent specialist to ensure the long term safety of the site, equipment and ancillary items. This will also meet legal and insurance responsibilities as well as complying with the requirements of EN1176 (the European Playground Standard).

Obviously the playground owner has to pay for this inspection, it’s a few hundred pounds per playground, so maybe this is part of the NT’s decision.

Thank you Cosmos, you have explained it far better than me.

If it needs a screw here or there, who will do it when the staff are furloughed?

Unfurlough the staff then. The same person who has the screwdriver is probably the same groundsperson who is there to make sure that the park gates open and close.

It's annoying - we went to Attingham Park recently and the field of play was open, but most of it was taped off. There were some logs to climb on but that was about it. In contrast, the playground at my local park is fully open and it was lovely to see children happily playing there recently. Could the NT just have signs up saying that you use the playground at your own risk and make sure you sanitise your hands regularly?

It’s nothing to do with covid. Read the post by cosmos.

Nothing to do with NT, but in our very well-used local park, the lovely playground is open, but the toilets don't open until 12.00. On a nice day in the school holidays, there are probably a couple of hundred young children in the park! Thoughtful, not.

@LaundryBasketOfHell it depends on the property. Most say you are welcome to stay until closing but two of our favourite, Mottisfont and Tyntesfield are asking you to limit your visit to 3 and 2 hours respectively. .

This is the standard NT reply you get if you contact them out playgrounds:

“Hello ...., thanks for getting in touch and for your support as members. Many of our natural play areas, which are made from natural materials and are often in larger, open spaces, are now open, although we urge visitors to check property websites before visiting. Many of our other play areas, including those with traditional play equipment and those indoors, remain closed. Our play areas are very popular, and to conform with government guidance, we’d need to consider introducing booking systems to restrict numbers and maintain social distancing and frequent cleaning to maintain the safety of families using the equipment. At present, we’re unable to do this at many of our play areas and therefore they remain closed. We will open them as soon as we can ensure it is safe to do so.“

My local NT place has opened its play area with some restrictions (one play zone is actually a tunnel, so that is closed) but the other areas/equipment is open and they’ve built some new climbing type structures to compensate for the closed ones. I wonder if the difference is that the “equipment” is all natural wood type stuff, not metal and plastic.

Also, as someone has said up thread, they won’t bring in volunteers to work until all their furloughed staff are back so struggle to have enough people around to supervise the areas.

Its peoples own responsibility to social distance or not. Kids won't be social distancing on play equipment but its not the same as 2 people not social distancing in an enclosed space. Or not distancing in a queue, where you are by the same person for a period of time. Kids do get close to each other but only for a few minutes at most.