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

[Mummy1608]

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?

"defined estates". So, accessed with a key?

Residents parking is for residents only ordinary roads that happen to be in a council estate are no more for residents than the roads outside privately owned houses. Some people like to think they have a right to park outside their house but that doesn't make it so. When I lived on council estate we were regularly surveyed to see if we wanted to be a permit parking zone. We didn't, the next road over did because they were closer to the station so commuters used to park there. Only once it became a permit parking zone did they not have the right to do so. (Well actually they did as.lomg as they weren't there between 10am and 11am when the permit parking applied).

Absolutely okay to use it. And honestly if anyone has a problem with any kid using a playground... that's a problem with them

could depend on the council - and even be variations within that
the council estate that envelops my building has been increasingly fenced off over the years; there are lovely gardens, a children's play area and a barbecue area.
You used to be able to walk through when I first lived here, but all security coded now - I think to try and cut down on gang activity.

If anyone can access, I'd use it - don't ask anyone there directly, but gauge reactions.

@Onlyforcake

"defined estates". So, accessed with a key?

Not necessarily with a key, although some of them near me are accessed by residents using a key pad. I'm sure no one has the right to gain access, just because it's council-owned.

By defined I meant an identifiable estate with houses/flats, rather than a few random streets or the odd block here and there.

It depends, maybe just ask. There is a playground on an estate in the village I live in. It’s a mostly housing association estate and residents pay a service charge, this includes maintenance etc of the playground. It has been posted in our village newsletter that it is a residents only place, naturally because they pay for it. If visiting friends or something and go there then that’s fine, we’ve been invited.
Just check 😊

All playgrounds are council run so for the use of the public.

Estates which are discreet areas that are not tourist spots or regularly passed-by on the way to somewhere else, might find their play parks are less known about, than those in large towns or which are passed by many going elsewhere. It could be that these estates are therefore mostly used by residents and become very much ‘local’ parks. Residents might feel they are purely for them, but this is unusual becaue they are paid with by public money and trying to keep them for local use only would be unenforceable.

[quote limitedperiodonly]@PuzzledObserver an older couple you met in church who provided a buffet of sanpro you say? I bet they had a Gideon bible in the bedside drawer. It's a staple in many hotels.[/quote]
I wasn’t invited into the bedroom. Thankfully.

Well on any of the council estates I can bring to mind (including the one I used to live on), this would be totally fine. Nobody would bat an eyelid.

I'm thinking of estates as in streets of houses, originally built by the council as social housing but which are now probably 50% council owned & 50% privately owned. But the private owners only buy the house & the land it sits on. Not the community facilities.

I think @HadaVerde is just trying to wind everyone up and take the piss

It's a playground, anyone can use it! As if you go for a weekend away would u think of not using a park there?! Enjoy! X

@Westfacing I live in a row of non-council houses and we have resident-only parking. There is nothing I can do to stop a total stranger with a residents' permit parking in the road in front of my house. I don't have a car so it's always a strange car parked outside my house. I try not to get upset about it and always succeed.

People often stride about outside jabbering loudly into their mobiles. From their conversation and dress I gather most of them are estate agents waiting for clients.

It annoys me. I don't think people realise how loud they are and how little others want to hear about their comings and goings. But they are allowed to be here at say 11am and it would be silly for me to tell them to keep it down unless they were yelling obscenities.

If they wanted to set up a picnic I doubt the police would come round. But happily most people don't do things like that do they?

Only if you keep your coal in the bath

Ok.... we all now know you don’t live on a “council estate”.
Congrats🙄

"Just because they are owned by the council doesn't make them public property"

Er... yes it does. Obviously.

Parking provided specifically for residents is not the same as a public playpark.

It’s absolutely fine. I live on an estate and there’s a children’s playground just round the corner. It’s there for public use regardless of where people live

24 pages and no one has posted this yet

@HadaVerde

A playground within the grounds of a council estate is for residents use.

A playground in a park or on a recreational field or similar is obviously for general public use.

Would you use the bins on a council estate too?

Technically this is correct. The tenants would pay a service charge pm top of their rent for maintenance of the grounds and communal areas if it is on the estate.

However I really don't think it's an issue / I'm sure some of the children on the estate invite friends who do t live there to play .

PP above said it's literally public property, so it's ok - Again in theory yes but the resident later pay to rent and maintenance on top of the same taxes that you pay.

I will end with - I don't think anyone will bat an eye lid even if they know you don't live there. I tend to find it's the leaseholders in mixed tenure properties that are precious about what tenants can and can't use and which entrance way is for leaseholders only etc, and don't get me started on the communal garden . ...

It's funded out of public money. We do a little drive around and use parks even out of our council area....shock horror. Go to the park and ignore people like HardeVerde who is also obviously a joy hoover

They don't. It's just communal areas and property maintenance.

Playgrounds are run by the local council and are for all resident of the community ,how would anyone know where you lived? Unless they are cheeky enough to ask outright. You pay council tax for community facilities you obviously live within walking distance so you are within the community.

[quote limitedperiodonly]@Westfacing I live in a row of non-council houses and we have resident-only parking. There is nothing I can do to stop a total stranger with a residents' permit parking in the road in front of my house. I don't have a car so it's always a strange car parked outside my house. I try not to get upset about it and always succeed.

People often stride about outside jabbering loudly into their mobiles. From their conversation and dress I gather most of them are estate agents waiting for clients.

It annoys me. I don't think people realise how loud they are and how little others want to hear about their comings and goings. But they are allowed to be here at say 11am and it would be silly for me to tell them to keep it down unless they were yelling obscenities.

If they wanted to set up a picnic I doubt the police would come round. But happily most people don't do things like that do they?[/quote]
As I previously said, I'm not talking about streets of houses or blocks of flats on a street, but a clearly defined estate with perimeter buildings/gates, e.g. the inter-war tenements where 4 blocks face a communal square, that type of thing.

@HadaVerde

Visiting friends who live there? Yes fine.

Using it cos it’s closer than another for public use playground? No of course it’s not ok.

I’m amazed people think this is ok.

As a former local councillor I can quite categorically say this is incorrect.

@HadaVerde

‘Bins belong to individual householders.

Apart from the large communal ones on housing estates.

Which incidentally people would drive into and fill up with their crap too.

Yes I have witnessed this several times. Household rubble / builders rubble - they think it's ok to dump there waste here .