To wish there were more and better childrens playgrounds

[amberlene]

I've just come back from a holiday in France. One of the really nice things is that there are more childrens playgrounds, they are also bigger and more imaginative. I wish there were more here. It makes things a lot easier, children love them and they are more sociable.

what part of the country are you in? Over here in Gloucestershire there seem to be plenty - right from the
toddler ones - 2 swings and a climbing frame/slide in the new housing estates up to the
bowl swing/activity wall/zip wire/roundabout/football goal/basketball court/skate park ones for the teens.

My dad lived in France - their playgrounds are great - but ours are getting much better.

Rosy in my area we have more playgrounds than area I have visited in France, where they only seem to be in the main town park. Amsterdam was the very best I have visited.

Sorry damn auto correct first word was supposed to be gosh.

It depends where you live. Where we were in the SE we were awash with them. We were near a couple of big council ones but there were also AMAZING playgrounds at 4 or 5 National Trust properties quite locally to us and two 'Country Farm Parks' nearby. Memberships to the NT and the farms, although expensive, meant we had a huge range of choice of wonderful playgrounds.

Now we are in the SW and there is nowhere near the choice. None of the local NT properties have playgrounds and it is an hours drive to the nearest proper adventure playground. There is a decent playground in the town we are nearest to but it is offputtingly regularly frequented by the local delinquents teenagers. The beach does make up for quite a bit though.

We have very few, and pretty poor, playgrounds locally. We do have 3 nice patches of land where they have taken up perfectly good playgrounds over the last 10-15 years

I have to say, the parks around here (midlands) are brilliant. We have 3 really decent smaller parks within a 10 min walk each and then a massive town park with water play area, playing fields and lots of different equipment for all ages a 5 min drive away.

There's also a skate park and basketball court 2 mins away which is great for older kids. We're very lucky for parks!

I live in the South East near the M25. There are few playgrounds and they are all a bit tired and old looking. Some of the playgrounds in France even have cafes!

The playgrounds in my area are pathetic and few and far between. They haven't amused my children for years. If I say we are going to the park, they refuse to get out of the car.

The ones in France are usually great- I appreciate the wY that town centres often have a little play area just near the shops- perfect for DC who need a break! (I also appreciate not paying to park at lunchtime so you can enjoy lunch without the extra cost!!)

We found Northern Spain good for this too.

However, we are blessed with good play parks locally (Easy Anglia) and we use them a lot.

We live on the boundary of two London boroughs and both have great parks - and a wonderful enclosed toddler area with cafes. Probably because few children have gardens. We are looking to move to suburbia and as we're been house hunting I've been very disappointed with the parks I've seen.

I'm in the SE, near the M25, there are parks here that look good, there are many parks here with cafes, also seen tired, pointless parks in france and spain, I think you need a more representative sample!

Most playgrounds are empty year round, even in holidays under-used. Even when there's fairly new equipment. Councils can't afford to pay for such little used space.

We have a fantastic park in lytham
Its called parkview4u and it is excellent
They are just building a huge sand and water park too

Ragged - ours are uniformly packed, and there aren't anywhere near enough.

We're just back from a visit to my home country, Australia. The playground provision is so much better that my 3.5 year old remembered specific parks from his last visit a year ago without us even mentioning them, and even he has noticed the difference here.

Around here the quality of the playground is inversely proportionate to the quality of the area. We're double losers because the modern houses of this neighbourhood have handkerchief sized gardens. For 14,000 people there is, a toddler slide/ tower, toddler see-saw, 2 toddler swings, a bowl, 2 swings, a roundabout and a climbing frame. It's always busy. It's by the school and is packed out when the infants wait for the juniors.

I often drive to others.

In most of continental Europe far more people with families live in apartments and so have no garden, so it is little wonder there is more provision of play parks.

I'm in West London & we could walk to a different park each day of the week. The only thing I would need to drive or get the tube for is a paddling pool/splash zone

Ours are always super busy. Where do you live that they are empty all year round Ragged? I would say that's quite unusual?

We have a good range of parks near us, one in particular is well designed and will keep DS occupied for many years.

There is a dearth of more creative, natural play areas, with trees, wood and reclaimed materials. The type where children get to make decisions and weigh up risk, which is so rare in today's over cosseted world.

I am in the East Midlands and we could walk to 5, only 1 has a cafe but they are all well maintained with imaginative equipment like climbing walls and skate parks. The country park is about 10 minutes drive and has 10 km of trails as well as playgrounds, lakes and so on. I live ina sunburb of a large city and feel blessed with the green space we have.

Where are the national trust ones? We are SE and they all seem to be hours away

I'm in NI, and think the parks are brilliant!

There are local elections this week in many areas.

If you want this, make sure you vote for the councillors you think most likely to prioritise it in your council spending.

We have some great ones here (just north of london) and well used all year round. However the best i have seen is Heartlands in Cornwall (Camborne). There should be more like that.

I'm in London and we could walk to about ten and three adventure playgrounds and a paddling pool, although the ones with splash zones are a bus ride away. Varying quality but there are a couple that are excellent and most of them are very popular.

At the risk of being one of "those" posters, whilst it's unlikely that your council will want to prioritise play at this time of financial crunch, it is very possible to locate funding from eg the Lottery or Sports Relief to refurbish elderly playgrounds or even set them up from scratch. You'd need a group of motivated parents and a helpful contact at the council.

Agree. I hate how these days most of tea playgrounds in my local area seem to contain identical play equipment, and less fun/ challenging versions of the equipment that I played on as a child. That's not just my rose tinted specs playing tricks; we often go out of our way to visit a recreation ground that has old equipment but is actually more fun for the kids.