Usually due to vandalism and neglect but this one is just sad.

‘Outside play space with equipment’ box ticked on some developers check list.

There’s probably more play value in the post box.

“No Ball Games’ sign just out of shot, no doubt.

A seat and one of those “wobbly/spring things”.

Yeah, it really is pretty desperate isn’t it? 🙁

When I wer a lad ..etc

There’s a real bleak poetry in that.

edit. I see location top-left, missed on tiny screen

58 Wain Avenue, Chesterfield, looking at the original image.

That is pretty depressing isn’t it…

There’s a small play area near me that is behind some relatively new houses and I for the life of me can’t figure out how you get into it? From the road behind the houses it is fenced off (8 foot high chain link fence) and on Google maps it shows a path but when you enter the little cul-de-sac it is in the paths all seem to just be heading into someone’s garden? Never seen anyone in there.

So appears they built it and made it only accessible by the ~8 houses they built (which are all occupied by old people) and fenced it off to keep the rest of the public away…

Maybe it is a post-modern “imagination space” where children are encouraged to use their imagination rather than swings, see-saws etc?
The springy thingy is simply the catalyst for online discourse

I bet the springy thing doesn’t even spring

Shunned by society for his crimes, Zebedee had to be segregated from all the other prisoners and was forced to walk the exercise yard alone.

Stalingrad in WW2 looks a hoot in comparison!

Looks like the developer has gone the extra mile in discharging its section 106 requirements there.

Pfft, kids today.

Give them half a dozen cardboard boxes and some coal and they’ll be ‘rite…..

I remember the wicthes hat with tarmac underneath when I were a lad.

You mean the roundabout you used to push around that weighed a tonne but was really fun…. And a little dangerous… not that I ever saw any broken bones!

At least they put it at a jaunty angle. Cheery.

You mean the roundabout you used to push around that weighed a tonne but was really fun…. And a little dangerous… not that I ever saw any broken bones!

Missing a trick, really.

[video]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iZQrOXOm14w[/video]

🙁

On a similar note: “There’s your skate park.”

Looks like the very minimum the developers could get away with to comply with planning!

Where my mate lives, there are some new builds and the new residents have raised a petition to get the children’s play area removed – it spoils their view apparently.

Shirley the kids have bikes ?

Wheelieeeeeeees 😀

They’ve made more effort in Karachi

Where do they plug their iPads in ?

We know a Danish couple who got their kid a ball pool to play in.

The balls?

All shades of grey.

Most joyless thing I’ve ever seen.

It’s all council cutbacks innit? Councillors need paying ya know!

Where my mate lives, there are some new builds and the new residents have raised a petition to get the children’s play area removed – it spoils their view apparently.

Quite right too. Children attract paedophiles to the area, some of whom could be gypsys.

😀 At jambourgie!

I’m not sure, but I think there might be a bin behind the bench. It could only be better if there were signs saying no children allowed and keep off the grass.

Could be worse I suppose.

I was the Neighborhood Policing Inspector for an area of Huddersfield in the early 2000s. It was at the height of the “Antisocial Behaviour” paranoia, and one local councillor was hounded by a vicious and vocal group of residents who campaigned tirelessly to have young people banned from a particular place. Now the councillor and I didn’t exactly see eye to eye on a number of issues but at one public meeting where we were both getting a hard time from the locals I stood up to defend her. A local hack managed to quote me word for word and the report read “Neighbourhood Policing Inspector refuses to go down in history as the person who banned children from recreation ground.”.

LOL

Quality of children’s play areas is a litmus test for the health of any given society. Compare and contrast with the norm in Holland or Germany…

Look at you average new build school for playground depression.

Its OK, the original image is right close to train tracks so kids have better to do.

“No Ball Games’ sign just out of shot, no doubt.

There’s an area of greenspace near me with a “no ball games” sign referring to 161 of the Highways Act 1980

The local access forum have just issued a formal letter to the council pointing out that the sign faces the grass, but that te legislation only prohibits ball games (that cause annoyance to users) in the highway

We’ll see what the response is 👿

Scapegoat – Member

A local hack managed to quote me word for word and the report read “Neighbourhood Policing Inspector refuses to go down in history as the person who banned children from recreation ground.”.

so you’re not their scapegoat then?

If I was a teenager wwaswas, I’d be depressed sitting in that caged off play area….
No smartphone charge points… whats a kid to do?

Could be worse I suppose.

No way, that death slide looks amazing 🙂

“Child, welcome to gravity”

isn’t that just the crèche for the 12-16 year olds to put their kids in while they play on the grass?

I was once a Senior Play area Technician.
Spent about 5 years working for the local council doing Health and Safety reports on Play areas and Skate parks.
70 sites done on a weekly basis.
One large estate was built using various companies. Due to planning, there were 12 play areas on this one estate.
Eventually two of us became just me through lake of funding.
Then there was every man and his dog trying to sue me because little Johnny had fallen off some equipment and learnt a Life skill.
It was a great job to start with but fresh out of Uni bosses with no idea spoilt it.

“Neighbourhood Policing Inspector refuses to go down in history as the person who banned children from recreation ground.”

Once, many years ago whilst on a school trip, I had to gather the kids together and inform them that the mass use of bouncy balls inside the fully marble-tiled Italian hotel was placing me in a situation where I might have to “Ban Bouncy Balls”. I explained that this would be a career-low, and I’d really prefer them to get a, literal and figurative, grip. They did, great kids.

Spotted in rural Spain. Knew I’d find a use for this pic eventually!

I quite fancy a game of Bulldog.