Save Our Playgrounds!
PRESS RELEASE
Date: 31 August 2010
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
There are only days to go until the new Government makes its final decision on axing funding for 1300 ageing playgrounds promised to communities in the playbuilder scheme 2 years ago.
Since the announcement of the playbuilder funding freeze on July 15th, Oxfordshire business woman, Emma Kane, has single-handedly taken her local campaign for a play area in the village of Hook Norton to a national campaign to save the remaining playgrounds across the UK by 31st August!
Emma, 37, an Internet Consultant, has lived in Hook Norton for 7 years with her husband and two children aged 6 and 4. “The play area in the village, since I’ve known it, has always been very old and tired and last August a multi-play structure had to be removed due to its age which left virtually nothing to play on in the park. This really gave me the impetus to take action”, said Emma.
Working with the Parish Council to look for fundraising, Emma came across playbuilder which offered substantial grants to help fund the improvements needed for ageing playgrounds. Competition for this Government funding was high with Oxfordshire as a county having 98 applications.
Emma, determined to succeed in obtaining the funding, formed a playground supporters group in the village and put a strategy in place to raise money for additional funds and put together a credible application for playbuilder.
"We put many hundreds of hours into our playbuilder application and drew on support from all ages in the community. We had a group of youth ambassadors who were involved and consulted at every stage. We made a film, we distributed 1000 questionnaires, had numerous village and strategy meetings and setup a constituted village organisation. Everyone is very disappointed that our project has been put on hold and is under threat”, said Emma.
When the funding freeze was announced back in July, Emma switched her local campaign into a national one via her website www.savetheplayground.co.uk . A petition was set up on the site and used online social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter to drive interest to the site and motivate people to pledge their support.
The online petition now has well over a thousand signatures and the designated facebook page for the campaign sees 100 users join it every day.
The Association of Play Industries (API) is also backing the campaign and is the lead trade body within the play sector representing the interests of manufacturers, designers and distributors of both indoor and outdoor play equipment and play area surfacing.
John Croasdale, Chairman of the API, commented, “Providing all children with safe and exciting places to play is vital and the Playbuilder funding was aimed at improving play opportunities for older children aged 8-13, that had previously been lacking. The scheme has brought many communities together with children and their families working to create exciting new playgrounds. As the country faces a huge battle against child obesity these playgrounds will also contribute to improving the health of our children, with the long term benefits being massively significant."
What Emma has achieved, not only with her local campaign, but in the last few weeks in creating a voice to get Westminster to demonstrate its intention to create a ‘Big Society’ and put play as one of the five task force priority areas has been phenomenal and even taken her by surprise.