Leeds needs an urgent plan for our playgrounds - YEP letters

FROM: Coun Paul Wadsworth, Guiseley and Rawdon Ward
Do we need to get our playgrounds open again? (Photo by Mark Trowbridge/Getty Images)Do we need to get our playgrounds open again? (Photo by Mark Trowbridge/Getty Images)
Do we need to get our playgrounds open again? (Photo by Mark Trowbridge/Getty Images)

Last week, I read with dismay your article ‘All 200 Leeds playgrounds to stay shut and should not be used’ (YEP, July 22).

I note this contradicts with a previous article ‘Children’s play areas and playgrounds in Leeds to reopen on Thursday’ from the week before. I have to say I’m utterly confused with the whole situation and the shambolic nature of the plan to get our playgrounds open again.

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The council has had weeks and weeks to get its act together. To come up with a coherent way to get them open again, but on the face of it have singularly failed to do so.

In the past, Government advice has been the reason given as to why Leeds City Council are unable to open playgrounds, yet some of our local authority neighbours seem to have managed it under the same guidance.

Whilst I accept that we need to make sure the city’s playgrounds are safe to use, I find myself at a loss to understand why it can’t be done in Leeds given the amount of time the council has now had to prepare for this

We are now into the school holidays and, weather permitting, we should be able to let children run wild, having fun in a playground to burn off some of that excess energy they seem to have an infinite supply of.

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But we are not allowed to. ‘Breaking in’ to use play equipment, I believe, is a growing phenomenon, and while I certainly can’t condone such actions, I can understand them.

We need a plan to know what is going on and we need it as a matter of urgency.

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