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Signs often discourage children from playing ball games(Image: Andrew Teebay\/Liverpool Echo)<\/p>\nLabour councillors are calling for improvements to children’s play facilitiesSigns often discourage children from playing ball games(Image: Andrew Teebay\/Liverpool Echo)<\/p>\n
\u2018No ball games\u2019 signs should be removed according to Labour councillors calling for an upgrade to play parks across Bristol. They are calling for a task force to explore how children can get more opportunities to play, like creating spaces to kick a ball around in housing developments.<\/p>\n
Playing is an important part of childhood development but in recent years children have become less free to roam around outdoors, while also spending more time looking at a screen. Labour<\/a> believes Bristol City Council<\/a> should be doing more to help children play.<\/p>\n Plans to improve access to play facilities will be debated by councillors in a full council meeting on September 9. Labour has tabled a motion saying the council should come up with a play strategy, following similar plans in Leeds such as letting children play on some streets.<\/p>\n Councillor Katja Hornchen, a former play worker and vice-chair of the children and young people policy committee, said: \u201cA child\u2019s early years play a crucial role in their life outcomes. The importance of play in their development cannot be understated. It is an important aspect in developing their individual sense of independence.<\/p>\n \u201cPlay is a learning experience, teaching children how things work, how to make friends and how to interact with people outside of your family. It is not just important for young children, but for older children too. 14 years of cuts to youth and play services led to a decline in community facilities that are low cost or free to use.<\/p>\n \u201cExisting play facilities are often far apart and difficult to get to without a car. We need to change that. As we build more homes, we need to provide the social infrastructure to go alongside them. The council needs to learn from cities across Europe and give over some of those spaces for children to play, run around and even just hang out in.\u201d<\/p>\n Under the former Labour administration, the council decided to invest \u00a31.6 million on upgrading facilities<\/a> in seven play parks. And plans were approved for a huge youth club in Knowle<\/a> West, which is due to open next year. Earlier this year, youth councillors said that more youth clubs would help tackle knife crime<\/a> and gangs.<\/p>\n Cllr Tom Renhard, leader of the Labour group, added: \u201cPlay is a crucial part of childhood, supporting childhood development and good mental health. Under the last Tory government, youth centres and play parks closed up and down the country. However in Bristol, the previous Labour administration bucked that trend by putting funding where it matters.<\/p>\n \u201cIn the past two years, nine play parks on council estates had new play equipment installed, alongside the millions of pounds allocated to refurbishing other parks across the city. And soon a world-class Youth Zone will open its doors in South Bristol. While this is welcome, much more needs to be done.\u201d<\/p>\n Only one in six people in deprived parts of Bristol are satisfied with activities for children and young people, according to the council\u2019s Quality of Life survey. If the task force is set up, they could explore ideas such as removing \u2018no ball games\u2019 signs, mapping small green spaces that could be used for play, and looking at which parks need priority for investing in new equipment.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Labour councillors are calling for improvements to children’s play facilitiesSigns often discourage children from playing ball games(Image: Andrew…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":396320,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8818],"tags":[381,3893,748,527,393,4884,16656,528,285,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-396319","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-bristol","8":"tag-bristol","9":"tag-bristol-city-council","10":"tag-britain","11":"tag-conservative-party","12":"tag-england","13":"tag-great-britain","14":"tag-knowle","15":"tag-labour-party","16":"tag-politics","17":"tag-uk","18":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115144128131842566","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/396319","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=396319"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/396319\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/396320"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=396319"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=396319"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=396319"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}