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LET US PLAY: Ed Balls backs YEP campaign for parks
CHILDREN'S Secretary Ed Balls has thrown his weight behind the Yorkshire Evening Post's Let Us Play campaign.
But rather than leaping on a rope swing as he did in London when promoting the Government's Children's Plan, this time he settled for pushing a toddler on a sorry-looking baby version in a heavily vandalised play area to make his point.
The Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families made a visit to the park in Halton, Leeds, to highlight the disappointing state of playgrounds and support the YEP's bid to get better quality, and more, play areas for the city's children.
He said: "I think it's a brilliant campaign because it can affect decisions made not just by the city council but right across the city and region in terms of planning decisions and housing estates.
"The success of the YEP campaign will be whether in two years' time people are saying we've actually spent the money well and got decent play facilities for young people."
Although there was a fairly new-looking multi-use games area at the park on the corner of Carden Avenue and Kyffin Avenue in Halton, the playground itself was embarrassingly poor.
Only one of two baby swings remained, there was a tiny graffitied slide, a charred balance log with the remains of a fire beneath it, paint splattered on the floor and slide and a nearby bin badly fire-damaged.
Mr Balls, MP for Normanton, said: "This is the kind of thing which means young people will think, 'why should we look after it?'" Locals said the park was used by drug dealers so many people were afraid to take youngsters there.
And Coun Mick Lyons (Labour, Temple Newsam) said: "This is the only playground for children for the whole of the Temple Newsam ward – there's about 2,000 homes in Halton Moor."
One of the aims of Labour's Children's Plan is to get youngsters playing outside more, something Mr Balls said young people were keen to do despite the belief they wanted to stay inside playing computer games.
He said: "Part of the problem we have got is that children aren't playing outside enough and that's too often because parents aren't sure if they will be safe.
"If we can provide decent play facilities where kids can have fun and be safe I think we will be delivering what families want."
Mr Balls unveiled the Children's Plan in December last year – with 1billion to fund it over three years.
The proposals to improve schools and provide more support for parents included promises of 225million to build or upgrade 3,500 playgrounds across the country and set up 30 new supervised adventure play areas, aimed at eight to 13-year-olds, in deprived communities.
Mr Balls said: "There's lots of really important things like tackling obesity, learning about risk and how to get on with others but the most important thing is we want children to have fun – that's what you should be doing when you're little."
And he said consultations with parents across West Yorkshire revealed play facilities really mattered to them.
debbie.leigh@ypn.co.uk
TOMORROW: CITY play tsar Frank O'Malley calls for no ball games signs to be taken down.
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Thursday 24 May 2012
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