End of new playgrounds!

[Loujalou]

The government are stopping the building of playgrounds under the Playbuilder.

Am probably more gutted than most as they were supposed to be building one down my road and it was going to be ace. Probably will be scrapped now.

How did the previous Government propose to pay for them? Or were they promising lovely shiney goodies on the never-never?

Control freak Centralised schemes such as Playbuilder rarely deliver good value for money (also the main problem with the school building behemoth). Perhaps when we as a nation have crawled out of debt a bit, a huge central government will once again have such initiatives (and perhaps ever have real money for them).

Until then, perhaps local initiatives could have much the same effect (and possibly use local suppliers/builders too). After all, it's not the building of playgrounds being prevented, just one purse of borrowed money being closed.

And perhaps there are other ways of doing the job at lower cost - I was flabbergasted to see it cost £235m for 1300 playgrounds: that's over £180,000 each. I find it hard to belive this scheme is VFM.

Me too, Louja

I think what I am saying is that you can choose where you make the requisite cuts

labour might have come down harder on the tax dodging higher earners I keep hearing about, or bank CEOs or whatever, but good old conservative Britain has its priorities elsewhere.

Labour created this sad situation in the first place.

I also think that these central schemes often waste a good deal of money.

It is just not as simple as the kids v. the banks.

It is easy to complain about cuts when they affect you, the problem is all cuts affect someone. And sadly there do have to be cuts. Even Labour said so.

The playgrounds I know that have been redone recently locally have all been done through other funds, after groups of local people have got together in order to sort it out. I am not sure Government money has been around for his kind of thing, especially in more well off areas, for along time.

We have a new playground on our estate. The developers built it and everyoe who lives on the estate pays an amount every year, part of which pays towards the upkeep of the park. But the park is not private and anyone can use it. So again, no government funding again here - this is in last 5 years.

Humphrey - I think you'll find this economic crisis started in the US, where they had a rather strikingly right-wing government. Don't think you can blame Labour for Lehman's (although personally I wish they'd been tougher on the City, can you imagine the headlines if they'd tried?).

This government's proposed cuts seem to focus on women, children and the poor. From nursery milk to school buildings to children's centres to support for victims of domestic violence and benefit cuts.

Please tell me if there's any evidence of bankers sharing the pain they inflicted?

Agree with edam. Plus making drastic cuts isn't the only way to cut the deficit. They could raise money by increasing taxes (and not just on VAT which is indiscriminate). Or wait for the economy to recover fully and pay it off in the good times.

This government is just using the deficit to make changes they've been wanting to make anyway. And this is shown by the way the cuts are NOT fair (despite what they say). They disproportionally affect women and children. And the poor.

10 schemes have been scrapped in Richmond upon Thames because of the cancellation of this scheme, according to the local (Tory/Lib) council because of the 'state of the economy'. However, there is tons of cash swilling around Richmond, albeit mainly in private hands.

The cost of building/updating one playground that will serve thousands of children over the years is less than many of the more wealthy locals might spend on a new kitchen. Maybe if the 70's chant had been "Thatcher, Thatcher playground snatcher", the scheme wouldn't have been scrapped.

On the other hand, I agree with other posters that it is likely that communities who really want a playground will probably be able to fund one somehow, whether through building them themselves or finding alternative funding.

At least the playground construction industry will be comforted by the thought that there are plenty of rich Tory MP's with space for a playground in their own back garden.

Agree with Edam. Agree with SerialMom.

All parties agreed cuts were needed, but these are ideological, driving back the gains for equality fought for in the C20th.

According to the Fawcett Society, £5.8bn of £8bn savings outlined in the Budget will come from women:
www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-10833190

I don't think we can blame Gordon Brown for the global economy collapse, but I can certainly blame him for our country being so poorly placed to see it out without such terrible cuts.

I wish Labour had won the election as it would have meant they would have had to cop the flack. Except they probably would have fudged it again, just leaving it until someone else had to pick up the pieces in another five years.

All you lot moaning about it should do something like plan and raise the money yourselves. There are fab playgrounds in several small villages around me and each and every one was built because a bunch of parents got together and raised the money themselves.

There is no government money for playgrounds. The government doesn't sit in Whitehall and think 'Right, how are we going to screw poor people/parents/minority groups today then?' If you're looking for something to vent against try the wanking people who got us into this fuck up in the first place. Oh, but that would be Labour and we all know that they are perfect and must not be blamed. FFS.

The government could have raised taxes. I could be wrong but Mr Obama has taxed banks in the States for the mess they got themselves in. The banks over here seem to be making large profits again - including the nationalised ones. Although I am aware not all the profits are hard earned cash.

I don't think Labour are perfect but I do believe the Tories were just waiting for an excuse to do what they are doing. There are other cutbacks that could be made in the public sector and taxes could be raised. In fact Labour were going to increase NI but that got removed. Oh well hopefully the Tories are showing their true colours and will get booted out.

I have written to my MP and am waiting to hear about the playground on my road and hopefully if its scrapped there is some money that can be raised. Its just sad.

"Tories were just waiting for an excuse to do what they are doing".

Yes, because the Tories are evil, child-eating monsters who hate everyone who doesn't own a manshion house and ride to hounds.

My point exactly Callisto.

This is the sort of story that makes me REALLY not understand the Big Society theme. Playbuilder is a scheme that in my region at least involves community groups parent-led, and often acting through established charities to initiate, design, and contribute to fundraising for schemes that make a big difference in deprived areas, promoting community involvement and giving young people alternatives to anti-social behaviour.

Isn't that what the Big Society IS? And isn't Big Society something that Labour was already doing for good or ill? And isn't Big Society something that the tories are using as a label for doing stuff they want, whilst ignoring communitarian stuff that they can't brand as their own or use as an ideology for cutting?

Sheesh.

"because the Tories are evil, child-eating monsters who hate everyone who doesn't own a manshion house and ride to hounds."

No, because that is what Tories do. Tories do not believe in taxes and public spending and do believe in market forces. On the other hand, people on the left wing believe in contributing according to the community according to ability (taxes) and reallocating expenditure according to need (public spending).

You might argue that either ideology is right or wrong, but you can't be surprised when Tories behave like Tories. The only time a Tory government wouldn't need to make cuts would be if the previous government had been Tory and had made enough cuts already.

The argument that Tories are only making cuts because "Labour spent all our money" is sounding a little bit like a broken record, when their actions are so in line with their belief system. It is also pretty obvious that a political party taking over after many years in opposition isn't going to just carry on with all the previous incumbent's scheme. You can see this with school building. It was announced as necessary because of Labour overspending, but as far as I can see they just want there own shiny new Tory school building scheme. Politicians from either side will do this even if it involves wasting money - you can't be surprised when politicians act like politicians.

It should also be noted that as not even a majority of MP's voted into parliament are Tory, you can't really expect most people to be in line with Tory thinking.

Merrymouse excellent post.

It seems to me that whilst I have my own core beleilfs there is a grain of sense in most party ideologioes, and if they would all (and I eman all) just stop bickerring and blaming or scapegoating the previous party / opposition / random groups of society (all disbaled lumped in as IB cheats; all teens painted as hoodie wearing thugs) tehn we might ahve a chance.

Government should be about action not spin.

In reality, my family is a Tory's wet dream. yes OK we're a bit sate dependent ATM but the way we';ve ahndled it- disbaled kids = Mum being at home and taking voer carer rrole as dad took on more work and slogged; redudnan cy for dad meant he aheded back to study a new trade and started a small bsuiness. Self help all the way. yet we find ourrselves lumped into so many stereotypes as above that the climb back up is amde harder. that's not Tory ideology at all, Tory (New Right) ideology states that people like us should be enabled to climb our way back to self support and celebrated for it. But we're victims of the media shite that has taken over, and that's not about the party but the weak willed people who take up politics in this day and age.

MerryMouse - of course every new government blames the previous one. But the previous Labour govt massively overspent whilst failing to foresee a very obvious recession looming. Therefore it falls to the Tories to make cuts. They would make cuts anyway because their ideology is small government, low taxes and a responsible electorate that doesn't expect govt handouts for absolutely everything. But the cuts this time have to be serious and to the bone because we are extremely in debt. If the government were a business the banks would have foreclosed and called the auditors in long ago.

I think that your assumption that left wingers have the monopoly on contributing to the community according to ability is typical left wing bullshit. There are very, very many Tory voters who believe in this, but feel that the state is not the way to do it as anything run by the state tends to be cumbersome and expensive and misses the people it should be helping. A perfect example being Sure Start.

Hmm. Must have missed all the responsible Tories in my area offering an alternative to Sure Start. They are clearly being very discrete about it.

Some lovely 'open garden' days with tea and cakes though.

I mean Sure Start being used only by middle class mothers, and not the people it was originally targetted at ie the very ones that Labour professed to look after so well.

Mmmmm... the Sure Start centre where I live is mainly used by the people who live on the council estate (some do own their own homes). So its not always the middle classes that benefit from such ventures.

There's a separate thread about surestarts; lots of differente xamples of how different ones wprk, doesn;t seem to be a one size fits all thing at all.

But surely if there are lots of caring Tories who believe that Sure Start is failing those on lower incomes, and that the best way to help these people is outside the state, they would already be out there helping people. They can't all have been waiting for somebody to design the 'Big Society' website.

I have a sneaky feeling that btheyw ere waiitng for me to design the Bog Society, alongside the caring I do- it seems to have replaced all teh actual paid work I did!

Which would be fine only when I tried, there wasn't a venue I could hold the group I wanted (an ASD support group) without weither high initial deposit or a significant travelling distance I couldn't manage.

Which seems rather silly really.