Coronavirus: Call to reopen playgrounds as 'a priority'
Nicole Weinstein
Friday, June 12, 2020
Guidelines for when and how playgrounds will be brought back into use ‘must be provided immediately’ if the Government serious about tackling obesity amid the pandemic, the Association of Play Industries has warned.
In a letter to the Prime Minister and the minister for housing, communities and local government, API urged the Government to provide a new funding stream specifically for public playgrounds to reverse the decline in numbers over recent years and immediately provide guidelines for when and how playgrounds will be brought back into use.
Playgrounds have been closed since the lockdown started on 23 March.
With the news that many schools are not opening for all children until at least September, the Government ‘simply cannot condemn children to an extended summer lockdown’, API said.
The Association of Play Industries (API) www.api-play.org is the lead trade body within the play sector and campaigns for policy recognition for play.
API chair Mark Hardy said, ‘With parents up and down the land desperate for playgrounds to reopen, pressure is growing on the Government to follow Scotland’s example and outline their plans as a matter of urgency. Children matter, so where are they in the Mr Johnson’s roadmap out of lockdown?’
He added, ‘Lockdown for many children has been a brutal experience with months spent indoors, separated from friends, uncertainty over their futures, hope removed. By opening playgrounds again, the Government can set children free and let them know that they haven’t been forgotten.
‘The day-to-day lives of children and families are hugely impacted by playground closures, especially the millions of households without little or no outside space. The Government now need to show that they are in touch with the lives of ordinary people and ease their burden.’
With chronic under-investment in playgrounds in recent years and the closure and neglect of playgrounds going into free-fall, the API has been warning of the catastrophic impact of mass playground closures on children’s mental and physical health.
'Once playgrounds are back in action, there needs to be urgent, sustained and significant government investment in public play provision,’ said Mr Hardy.
