Our playground isn’t open

[Heartonsleeve89]

The playground in our park isn’t open, despite guidelines for England saying it was ok to open from yesterday.
Apparently people jumped the fence with their toddlers and kids and the police came to shut it down.
I think it’s pathetic when pubs, cafes and restaurants are allowed to have people indoors. And this is outdoors! Children are missing out AGAIN

The playgrounds cannot open yet, what's the issue?

The one in my local park was open yesterday but was so crowded I wouldn’t be comfortable letting my children use it. It was also full of adults supervising. So it might not be such a bad thing.

Ours are open from Wednesday- maybe yours are too?

I follow our local councillor on Facebook and she has been keeping us updated

It is outrageous that some councils are not prioritising getting parks reopen. Children are more likely to get hit by lightning than die of Covid19 and they have had a terrible year - let them play in the parks!

Contact your councils and put pressure on them - don't be passive on this it is ridiculous that some have done it swiftly and pragmatically and others are dragging their feet.

Also, it will only mean parks that do open will be busier so get them all open now.

Our local parks are yet to be risk assessed and aren’t open yet, even though the council had over a weeks notice that they would be allowed to open from yesterday. The neighbouring council have opened theirs so we went there instead today.

Our council prioritized what they call the 'destination' parks in the area for opening yesterday. Smaller parks wilk be opening in the coming weeks as they have to send round people to perform safety checks on the equipment, cut the grass which had been left deliberately long, and update the signage with covid advice.
They could not realistically do this for every park in the area for the 4th.
Have you checked your council website to see if they have any information on their approach to reopening?

Yes, it’s ridiculous red tape. They’ve not been used for 4 months, the virus won’t be there. Ours had to be ‘deep cleaned’ and then wait for the parish council to deem it ok. Their mean age is 65. Just put signs up and let children play. There’s been plenty of notice...

Our village council said they won't be able to open them at all. Having done a risk assessment, and they said following government guidelines, the equipment would have to be cleaned after every use, and supervised. This is outside in a village - with a handful of local children, and no cases in our village since lockdown.

They also shut the little bike and skate park. Ridiculous to me.

Luckily a big park and Manor House grounds in the next town along from us have their playground open. So we’ll be going there.

@TopBitchoftheWitches who says playgrounds can't open? Certainly in England they could from yesterday.

Ours opens monday

Keep speaking out about it and start using them if they can be accessed. Parish councillors with a very old average age cannot be allowed to determine this.

@AlandAnna

Yes, it’s ridiculous red tape. They’ve not been used for 4 months, the virus won’t be there. Ours had to be ‘deep cleaned’ and then wait for the parish council to deem it ok. Their mean age is 65. Just put signs up and let children play. There’s been plenty of notice...

Same here. Shame for our kids.

I think parks should be open to all if there's enough space for SD, as sports centres are still closed so many people have no where else to go.
Maybe a bit too soon for the play parks as the equipment is shared?? Although if it wasn't too crowded and you could wash hands after I can't see the problem.

My DSs football team had been doing fitness training in small groups of 6 in the local (very large) recreation ground. Very well organised only using a small amount of space twice a week.

I say had as the local dog walkers put a stop to it because someone else was using their park!!

The bloody cheek! local youth sports teams, can't use the local public facilities but it's ok for large groups of teens to sit about in the corner of the same park smoking and swigging cider!

We all just need to be able to access outdoor space sharing and making the best of it.

They should be organised for this- ours is open and has marshals managing how many are using it. Big city centre park.

If you read the guidance you will see why councils are pretty pissed off.
The document that the government produced is such rubbish its had to be reissued twice already.
Do talk to your council
but the blame lies in Whitehall
not with any individual councillor

www.slcc.co.uk/supporting-local-councils-to-reopen-playgrounds-safely/

www.api-play.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/4/2020/07/APIStatementFinal.pdf

www.gov.uk/government/publications/covid-19-guidance-for-managing-playgrounds-and-outdoor-gyms/covid-19-guidance-for-managing-playgrounds-and-outdoor-gyms

I only read the first two paragraphs the words minimise/ guidence tell me enough to know the councils are overreacting, yes whitehall do confuse things but the councils are acting like someone will try and prove they got covid at the playground and sue them, they just need to do what is reasonably possible and get on with it.

There have been tons of threads about this explaining why playgrounds are not open. The government guidelines for playgrounds are not fit for purpose, councils cannot possibly comply. And if they don’t comply they risk receiving penalties from the Health and Safety Executive. Most councils are waiting for the new updated guidelines that are due to be issued in the next couple of weeks.

Can't criticise people travelling to other parks if there local one isn't open as we did the same yesterday (found a quieter smaller park not our large local park that I deemed would be much busier!). The problem is they need to all be open as its better for social distancing if people aren't gravitating to the same ones!!

There have been tons of threads about this explaining why playgrounds are not open. The government guidelines for playgrounds are not fit for purpose, councils cannot possibly comply.

Some councils clearly have the nous and motivation to get it sorted. The guidelines look fine as they go - very little in the ‘must’ category, more in the ‘could’ and ‘should’.

It’s advisory, not statutory guidance and therefore ‘compliance’ with it isn’t relevant. The guidance makes this clear along with giving councils and others guidance on what they should consider as part of their risk assessments and options for minimising risk.

If they had produced incredibly detailed and prescriptive guidance there would have been wails that it didn’t fit their specific situation.

I (no longer) work in government and this lot are a particular shower of shit, but by god it’s getting boring people blaming ‘the guidance’ for their own unwillingness to engage their own brains.

@Davodia

There have been tons of threads about this explaining why playgrounds are not open. The government guidelines for playgrounds are not fit for purpose, councils cannot possibly comply. And if they don’t comply they risk receiving penalties from the Health and Safety Executive. Most councils are waiting for the new updated guidelines that are due to be issued in the next couple of weeks.

If thats the case are the health and safety exec going around to all the councils that have opened issuing them with penalties because they are not 100% complying with the not fit for purpose rules, of course not.

If every council wasn't opening I would understand but it can't be ok for some and not others.

(Our local ones are open, clean and not crowded because they’ve opened all of them. Was in another park in a different local authority today and ditto. The utter joy on the faces of small children at being back in a playground should shame all the councils who’ve decided this is in the ‘too hard’ basket and aren’t prioritising their local non voters children.

The problem is that the use of the words “must” and “should” makes the guidance sound mandatory, and councils don’t have the money to implement most of the measures. In an ideal world they’d just put up a sign about social distancing and a warning that the park isn’t cleaned, and let people get on with it. But when words like “must” are used it sounds like the council must comply or they’ll be penalised, and the potential penalties are severe. So they play it safe and just keep playgrounds closed.

If every council wasn't opening I would understand but it can't be ok for some and not others
Some are assuming the guidance is advisory and proceeding on that basis. Others are saying “ooh this is phrased to sound mandatory, we daren’t make a mistake” and so they are not opening. My parish councillors are unpaid volunteers who have gone “oh shit, the max penalty if we get this wrong is two years jail! Best keep our playgrounds closed then we can’t be blamed for making a mistake”.

The problem is that the use of the words “must” and “should” makes the guidance sound mandatory, and councils don’t have the money to implement most of the measures.

Anyone working in a local authority whose job is to interpret guidance and carrying out formal risk assessments, who doesn’t know the difference between statutory and non-statutory (the guidance specifically sets out that it is not statutory) and between ‘must’ (compulsory) and ‘should’ (not compulsory) should not be in that job. Particularly when it is ‘should consider’ or ‘should encourage’.

Just like the many schools who decided they could take Year 6 back and not Reception, despite the guidance that they ‘should’ prioritise Reception aren’t breaking any laws. They’ve assessed their risks in their own circumstances using the guidance as it is designed to be used (and the schools guidance was a lot more problematic).

The only mandatory thing in this guidance is the (existing) requirement to carry out a risk assessment and making it clear that the RA must include COVID risks and mitigations.