The small play park next to Wainwright Close has been taken away by the Council, after reports that youths were hanging round there, and land ownership issues meant the Council couldn’t gate it off.

The last of the equipment was removed recently, and when local parents contacted us to find out what was going on, it turned out that the decision not to replace equipment as it broke was taken two years ago. The nearest playground is now on the other side of the busy and dangerous A6 at Hallam Gardens or alternatively a good walk away at St Thomas’ Rec.

If the Council don’t repair or replace broken play equipment but only remove items then inevitably play provision will decline so that we’ll end up with just a few parks with good equipment making it difficult for parents and children to get to.

Road Safety

Small local play areas are a council policy to provide ‘local’ areas that don’t involve, for example, crossing the A6 – you might as a parent be OK with letting your child go a short distance along a local street to a play area but most wouldn’t dream of letting a small child go on their own across the A6 given the volumes of traffic all through the day.

Manor’s Lib Dem councillors would have known all about this but it doesn’t look like they made much effort to let the wider community know or to provide a replacement so that local children have a safe place to play.

The Labour team in Manor will be pressing for new play equipment to be installed in a safe location where it won’t lead to problems for people living nearby.