Active discussions

Meet the Other Phone. Child-safe in minutes.

Meet the Other Phone.
Child-safe in minutes.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Talk
AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

Can I use the playground of a council estate if we don't live there?

803 replies

Mummy1608 · 09/02/2022 14:04

Quick question...

I live right outside a really big council estate. (Eg I walk through it everyday as a shortcut to my local train station, that's how close I am and how big it is.) It's got a lovely playground in it with lots of cool climbing bits etc. Can I go there with my DD or do you think it's frowned on if I don't live there, because it's meant to be for residents? I can't find anywhere whether this isn't allowed, but it might be technically allowed but still frowned on? My next nearest playground is much smaller (although always empty) and a 15 min walk away.

Tldr can I take my dd to the council estate playground?

OP posts:
Thread gallery
21
HadaVerde · 09/02/2022 21:21

@Legoisthebest

Hada yes correct that estate is now mostly privately owned. But it was built as council houses. It is a council estate. At the time one of the biggest in England. The OP never said if she was walking through this type of estate or brutalist flats or one built last year? She just said 'council estate'.
Op did give a description of the estate though and it fit the type talking about than the one you linked.
Legoisthebest · 09/02/2022 21:22

Apologies I was wrong about the estate in the picture I shared - it was built PRE war not post.
It was classed as a 'cottage estate' which is a type of 'council estate'.

Can I use the playground of a council estate if we don't live there?
Can I use the playground of a council estate if we don't live there?
HoneyFlowers · 09/02/2022 21:23

I must be such a criminal taking my child to a variety of play parks. Awaiting my fines in the post...

HadaVerde · 09/02/2022 21:24

[quote Wheelz46]@HadaVerde I am sure a PP mentioned the excerpt from the Islington Estate you quoted actually confirmed what everyone is telling you on here but you never responded to their post![/quote]
I did respond to their post and said that that document referenced play areas specifically.

So no that posters reply to me wasn’t the gotcha they thought it was.

VestaTilley · 09/02/2022 21:25

Of course you can play there! All playgrounds are for everyone (unless it’s genuinely private land, which this isn’t).

limitedperiodonly · 09/02/2022 21:29

[quote elbea]**@HadaVerde I think the problem is you don’t quite understand how public open space works. When a housing estate is built they have a legal requirement to provide open space with provision for play - a LAP, LEAP or NEAP (usually something like 7m per resident specifically for play areas). If it’s small or already sufficient provision they can just give the local parish/town council money to spend in the area.

The open space isn’t exclusively for the residents - it is legally required to be ‘public open space’. The majority of the time, the play areas are adopted by a council - be it parish, town or county. Some may not be adopted and handed to a management company, it is still legally public open space though. Public open space encompasses lots of things from verges to play areas. It doesn’t matter if it’s in a ‘park’ or ‘estate’, it’s all public open space.

I manage 100 acres of public open space which currently has 30 play areas, I have another 10 coming in the next year being built on new developments. Lots of them are within housing estates (new build estates are always mixed social and private housing anyway now) but are free for all to use by definition of being public open space.[/quote]
It's a big quote but I think it needs spelling out in full for @HadaVerde and similarly confused people.

Sickoffamilydrama · 09/02/2022 21:29

So this is definitely a council estate I had friends that lived on it as a teen don't panic I don't live near there now.

As you can see even though the park is surrounded by council & now private houses it's is still council owned.

Can I use the playground of a council estate if we don't live there?
Can I use the playground of a council estate if we don't live there?
Sickoffamilydrama · 09/02/2022 21:30

Some councils even helpful map the areas they own or their parks

Can I use the playground of a council estate if we don't live there?
Can I use the playground of a council estate if we don't live there?
HadaVerde · 09/02/2022 21:32

Communal green spaces owned by the council in our capacity as a social housing landlord form part of the estate or block they are associated with. They are distinguished from open spaces, parks or other public land open to members of the public by clearly defined boundaries

There is a difference between communal space and open/public space.

Legoisthebest · 09/02/2022 21:32

Mummy1608 I find the history about the development of council estates quite interesting. I feel a mix of sadness and anger that so many properties have been sold off and people that would once have been able to live in a council property can't and have to rely on the uncertainty of private landlords.
My grandparents former council house (they lived there 1950 - mid 90s) was up for sale recently. I would love to have been able to buy it but it's way beyond what I can afford.
Sorry.... that's a bit rambling and off topic.
(My sister said if we bought it the first thing we would have to do it put back the 1970s orange wallpaper Grin)

miltonj · 09/02/2022 21:34

@WonderfulYou

I'm picturing a play park that is located in a large estate that you can drive through but I think they might be picturing a park enclosed by flats all around.

Most estates you can’t really drive through as then they wouldn’t be classed as estates surely?
They would just be houses on a road.

I’m assuming the OP means the park is surrounded by the council houses which is why she wasn’t sure whether she can use it or not as usually these have a sign on saying for residents only.

I think some posters are thinking it’s a normal public park that you walk past and everyone goes to.

Lol what do you think a council estate actually is?
Tiana4 · 09/02/2022 21:36

Lol!! At the history of some estates and some really worrying trends where management companies get to control certain areas

Bit shocked by the eg of segregated housing managed play areas where they put a hedge in rather than access gate after planning permission was granted,

But OP is taking about public roads and an estate she walks through with a park area with some fantastic play equipment and therefore can use park as it's Local borough council owned

. We all use lots of different public play parks and sometimes drive to different ones as it'd be boring if went to same one each time!

The DCs may usually play at one near us but it isn't the best! My favourite is the park 40 mins walk away or 5 min drive for me, with two zip wires!! Near town centre, it's never actually that busy and has a climbing Rock thingy too (. A real gem that we found! ) we don't live near but pass it all the time and I stop with DCs in way out of town when coming home

Runningupthecurtains · 09/02/2022 21:38

I know how much you all love a diagram this is the bottom half of our village. Yellow is High Street, blue are non council estate streets, green is the council estate a few through roads and some cul de sacs, mostly houses some low rise flats. The hatched area is the public play area although it lies within the bounds of the council it is listed as a public space. I imagined it is a Simi set up that the OP is referring to.

Can I use the playground of a council estate if we don't live there?
monsterflake · 09/02/2022 21:44

I haven't read all the comments so I'm sorry if I'm repeating what someone else had already said in so many words, but I live on a council estate, this one doesn't have its "own" play area as there is a really nice one just down the road that anyone can use. In the flat I used to live in, there was a play area in the centre of the blocks, my kids loved it if kids they had never met came there, it gave them a chance to socialise with other children, plus some of their school friends who didn't live on the estate would come too sometimes. As I was quite isolated for a while after leaving DV, a new mum to chat to would be a positive for me too!

Whilst I am not aware of any laws around this (I would see it as ridiculous if there were to be honest!) I just can't see how using the play area would affect anyone negatively, so long as anyone using it behaved respectfully towards the residents, not damaging it in any way or anything, or older children not allowing little ones on the equipment or things like that then none council tenants I've ever known and lived alongside would mind at all.

monsterflake · 09/02/2022 21:50

@Simonesignoret

Children on council estates will no doubt be stuck in front of their x boxes or bunking off school in town so the chances of your kids bumping into them is unlikely so go ahead....
This is the kind of old fashioned snobbery my 10 year old calls his nan out on. Blush
HadaVerde · 09/02/2022 21:52

@LucyfurMorningstar

Housing estates in the London Borough of Islington en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andover_Estate en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bemerton_Estate en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caledonian_Estate en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Finsbury_Estate en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Market_Estate en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Packington_Estate en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spa_Green_Estate Is it the Packington?
The op hasn’t referenced Islington FYI
WonderfulYou · 09/02/2022 21:53

@Legoisthebest there is obviously some council estates you can drive through but most housing estates you only drive through to get to that area, it’s not a through road.

Most council estates are roads just for that estate which is why they’re called estates. If they were on roads that you drive through they wouldn’t usually be classed as estates.

You can be in a council/social house and not live on an estate.

WonderfulYou · 09/02/2022 21:57

Lol what do you think a council estate actually is?

@miltonj
All of the council estates I’ve lived on are where you would only drive on that road if you were going to that estate - they’re not on through roads. Unless people use it as a short cut or something.

I don’t think any council estate I’ve ever been to has a through road.

Legoisthebest · 09/02/2022 21:57

WonderfulYou huh ? Every housing estate I have ever met whether council or private you can drive through. My home town has over a dozen big housing estates and various small ones dotted around and you can drive in and out and through all of them.

HadaVerde · 09/02/2022 21:59

@Legoisthebest

WonderfulYou huh ? Every housing estate I have ever met whether council or private you can drive through. My home town has over a dozen big housing estates and various small ones dotted around and you can drive in and out and through all of them.
Through roads or access roads?

Loads of estates in London are access road only.

salsmum · 09/02/2022 22:01

We live in a big, newly developed estate with s mix of privately owned and HA residents, we have a lovely little 'open park' in the centre for residents and visitors etc which is fine but when some young teens decided to set alight to the tyre on the zip wire the HA told us all that the cost to replace and make good again would come out of all our service charges ShockAngry. We have lots of mums/dads and kids who love to use both the parks in the estate and everyone gets along fine no matter where they are from.

ghostmouse · 09/02/2022 22:03

@HadaVerde

But you assume that all social housing and council estates are the same. They aren’t. Council estates come in all forms from flats that pay a service charge and have communal bins to council houses on normal ordinary streets.

I live in the middle of a large council estate in a council house, I pay rent, our estate does not have communal bins nor do I pay a service charge or anything else. The estate is not gated and there is a big park yes park because that is what my welsh town calls a play ground. It’s for everyone to use.
Maybe in London council estates arendifferent I have no idea but the rest of the uk is not London.

I’m a council tenant, I couldn’t give a shit who uses the estate ‘park’ It’s public access

WonderfulYou · 09/02/2022 22:03

@Legoisthebest they are obviously more common than I think then.

I don’t think I know of any that are through roads where you drive through them to get to somewhere else, unless you’re taking a short cut.
Most just go around the estate/estates and then out of the other side.

miltonj · 09/02/2022 22:07

@WonderfulYou

Lol what do you think a council estate actually is?

@miltonj
All of the council estates I’ve lived on are where you would only drive on that road if you were going to that estate - they’re not on through roads. Unless people use it as a short cut or something.

I don’t think any council estate I’ve ever been to has a through road.

Council estates have things on them that everyone who lives in the city/town may want to use. Big supermarkets, charity shops, pubs, cafes, post offices, drama clubs etc, all exist within council estates. It's just an area like any other. There's lots of reasons I might pass through a council estate.