tell me about your local playground?

[inconceivableme]

I have a toddler and find ours a bit disappointing, samey and unimaginative but generally in reasonable condition. They're unlikely to improve soon though with council budgets being cut the way they are.
Would love something a bit different, maybe made from natural materials, incorporating music elements or water play. Wishful thinking but would love ideas from elsewhere.

We have 2 - one is standard but mostly real wood. The other has the usual toys (slide, swings, climbing frame, Wendy house) but made into the shape of a pirate ship which is really fun!

Splash pads (easter-september), a wooden adventure play area and a pre-schoolers park.

Are you all in London by any chance?

Ok for us here to but don't tend to go with toddler unless its when school is on and the big kids arebn't their as he just wants to go up the biggest most dangerous climbing frames, slides etc
We have splash pads etc
What I find better is city farms (we have a free one nearby), an outdoor play cafe which has an enclosed area with under 5 toys, goingt o see the ducks and just taking him outdoors with a football.

Great NN btw Miaow! DS loves those books!

Mine is 250 yards away, has a slide, a climbing frame and a swing that has usually been swung around the frame by the local teens. There is also a huge message - Shannon is a sl@g - written on the slide. Lovely.
Thankfully in the city centre there is an amazing park and a short drive away there is a country park with s brilliant climbing frame so we avoid the rubbish one at all costs.

Ours is great, a green flag park. Fenced off toddler area, bigger kid area with new and imaginative climbing equipment, zip wire etc. What I think is really good is that the council have tried to cater for teens with a games court, trim track and funny shelter thing which I believe interacts with an i-pod but I'm not sure how

We're in an almost touristy area though and there was a deliberate policy to raise the status of the park in order to draw in visitors.

The one in walking distance from us is rubbish. Baby swing and big swing, one of which is usually broken. Seesaw. One of those bouncy reindeer head things. Monkey bars and slide. Bottom step of slide is so high that DS still needs help to get on at 6 (and v tall for 6 too). All very tired and weary, dented, chipped, faded and in dire need of replacement.

Ours are pretty good, we're in a medium sized village, about 1000 residents and have two parks. Ones a small one for little ones, little slide, climbing frame and swings and is in a fenced off section of a big grassy area and the other has a zip line, huge climbing rope ball thing, massive slide and a skate park thing. We also live 5 minutes walk from some woods as well which make for excellent exploration trips.

We have a couple of big parks, one within walking distance, the other we can walk too, but it's a fair walk.

The one which is about 20 minutes walk is ok, big slide, zip wire thingy, but not very big. The one further away is more for smaller ones.

We have 2 smaller ones about 15 minute walk away, but they are both small, and one in particular in the museum grounds is a bit dodgy, broken glass bottles on the floor, and local druggies hang out there at night, so we avoid them! In West Yorkshire.

My in laws live in Telford and their town centre park is absolutely amazing, lots of areas including a sand pit with mini diggers, one with a huge slide, and a water area in the summer. If you are ever there it's well worth a visit.

Local park, 10 minutes walk away, is a corporation of London park - there is a play ground with lots for older kids, a couple of baby swings (for which there is always a huge queue), a paddling pool in the summer and a huge sandpit area (open all year) with small slides and toddler friendly climbing frames for children under the age of 10 which is where the little ones tend to hang. I'd love for there to be more stuff for small children to play with away from the sandpit as I always seem to bring half the pit back with us when we go!