Conservative Council charges to use Playground (UK)

[Bluewolf]

Tory council to charge children £2.50 for using playground

Labour politicians say Wandsworth council's 'mean-spirited' plan will turn playground into a no-go area for the poor

For the children of Wandsworth, the age of innocence ends this autumn when their council puts a price tag on playtime.

To help fund £55m worth of budget cuts, councillors in the south London borough have decided to charge children £2.50 to use the local playground.

The Tory-run council will pilot the charge at weekends from October at an adventure playground in Battersea Park.

Labour politicians have described the charges as "unbelievably mean-spirited" and an attempt to turn play areas into no-go areas for the poor. An e-petition lodged on the council's website had gathered 154 signatories by Thursday.

The council said the park was "more than just swings and roundabouts" and that because the adventure area contained zip wires and 40ft structures, there were added health and safety staffing costs that needed to be recouped in difficult economic circumstances.

The council also said the charge was being introduced to provide the "best value for money" for local taxpayers.

A survey carried out at the playground by the council revealed that half of the children came from neighbouring boroughs.

"Why should Wandsworth taxpayers subsidise children from other boroughs?" a council spokesperson said.

The borough admits it is not expecting to make much money from the scheme and has no income target in mind but says the playground would have to close if it did not introduce the charge.

"The difficult economic situation we face means we have to consider every aspect of the work we do and the services we provide. The adventure playground is a very popular but also very expensive facility to run.

"Introducing a pilot charging scheme at weekends will allow us to carry on investing in the playground, recoup some of those costs and allow us to continue providing the best value for money we can for our council taxpayers. At around half the price of a child's cinema ticket we do not believe the fee is excessive."

In Wandsworth, band D council tax bills are £687 a year, about half the London average.

Sadiq Khan, the shadow justice minister and Labour MP for Tooting, which is part of Wandsworth, said: "This is unbelievably mean-spirited, even for Wandsworth council. It will be children from the poorest families who lose out.

"As families are squeezed by the Tory-led government's cuts, Wandsworth should be promoting low cost healthy activities, like those on offer at Battersea Park, not driving poorer children and families away."

Ken Livingstone, the Labour candidate for London mayor, said that parks and playgrounds should always remain free. "Only the Conservative party could consider charging kids to play. I believe London's parks and playgrounds should be free for London's families and I am deeply concerned at this attempt to turn publicly funded playgrounds into areas which only the rich and privileged can enjoy."

The council says it will review the charges in the summer of 2012.

This is a rather sad state of affairs and I though I cannot prove it, I feel this is more of an attempt at class warfare rather than a decision done in the light of government cuts. While I do not agree with the prospect of government cuts to begin with, surely one could cut something else rather then a simple public piece of property that allows hours of fun and actually gets children outside. This is made even worse by the fact that this is a rich London council, not some downtrodden northern rural county.

[aieeegrunt]

Ahh free market capitalism in all it's wondiferous glory

[Darth Tanner]

The borough admits it is not expecting to make much money from the scheme and has no income target in mind but says the playground would have to close if it did not introduce the charge.

So they openly admit they are not doing this to raise revenue but simply to piss in the pool. Lovely.

How on earth are they going to collect the money however, unless the site is actually manned I just don't see how they’re going to do it as any machine or honesty box they leave would simply be vandalised/stolen and would offer no actual means to enforce the entry fee unless this is some weird park that can be sealed off by razor fences with coin operated gates.

I find it amusing they choose to announce this now after the election. I hope the locals remember this come the next council elections.

[Iroscato]

My god, could they hit the working class any more viciously? What else can they do to us?
Charging to use a fucking playground...how is this supposed to help the yob culture we have now if kids don't get out playing? Let's hope the people grow some balls for once and stand up for their rights!

[Zaune]

I'm not completely against the idea in principle, because it does have the advantage that households who use the playground more often contribute more towards its upkeep. But £2.50 per child is far too high, at least for the daily rate that the article is hinting at; using the park more than once or twice a week would be a stretch for even relatively well-off families, much less some poor sod trying to raise a family on about two hundred quid a week.

[Iroscato]

I'm 100% against this bullshit, there are hundreds of different ways the council could raise money (ooh! I know! How about TAXING THE RICH MORE!?) so to charge parents to let their children enjoy a basic staple of childhood, is seriously pissing me off.

[Broomstick]

If there are areas with particular equipment that require attendants (like zip lines) charging a small fee might be reasonable.... but keeping an entire park off limits, including open areas and traditional things like swings? Yes, sounds very class warfare.

Over here, we have parks that charge, but it's not a blanket fee: if you drive you are charged for parking, if you walk, bike, skate, or otherwise get there on muscle power there is no charge (it is also connected to the area bike/walking/running trails so getting there via muscle power is quite reasonable for most in the area). People from outside the country are charged a higher fee than those resident in the county, whose taxes subsidize the park. There are some activities with an additional charge, such as renting cross-country skis in winter, but again, county residents are charged less than those from outside.

But, you know, a parking pass for an entire year to that local park for an entire family costs about $10.... which is the cost of just 2-3 days per child at the park in the OP. Seriously, that's just... too high. I could see that for a season's pass, or a yearly pass, because even low income people have a stab at scraping that together, but per day?

[Alan Bolte]

A better article

Children to be charged to use Battersea playground

Wandsworth Council will trial charging £2.50 for children to use the adventure play area at weekends from September.

A council spokesman said the high-tech park cost £220,000 a year to maintain and the proposal had been prompted by the "difficult economic situation".

But the plan has been criticised by former London mayor Ken Livingstone who said it was "appalling".

'Elaborate equipment'

The council also claims the fee at the park is being brought in because on weekends half of the families who use it come from outside the borough.

Mr Livingstone said the move had left him "deeply concerned", while hundreds of people signed a petition against the charge on the council's website.

Mr Livingstone said: "Only the Conservative Party could consider charging kids to play.

"I believe London's parks and playgrounds should be free for London's families and I am deeply concerned at this attempt to turn publicly-funded playgrounds into areas which only the rich and privileged can enjoy."

He added he feared the proposal meant Conservative councillor Eddie Lister, who is leaving his position as leader of Wandsworth Council to become London mayor Boris Johnson's chief of staff, would "drive through a hard-right agenda at City Hall".

The council said the supervised centre for five to 16-year-olds "boasts some of the most challenging and high-tech play equipment found anywhere in London or the South East" and also hosts dancing, music and arts workshops.


'Closing theirs'

A spokesman described equipment at the park as "sophisticated and elaborate" and said it included zip wires, climbing walls and large wooden balancing structures.

He said £20,000 had recently been spent on new equipment and maintenance.

The charges were also needed to pay for more than a dozen staff at the park each weekend and for regular routine maintenance, the spokesman said.

Children's services spokeswoman Kathy Tracey said: "While we are maintaining our facilities, other councils are simply closing theirs.

"Introducing a pilot charging scheme at weekends will allow us to carry on investing in the centre, recoup some of those costs and allow us to continue providing the best value for money we can for our council tax payers.

"At less than half the price of a child's cinema ticket we certainly do not believe the fee is excessive, and given that children can spend all day at the centre enjoying a wide range of supervised activities we think this represents great value for money for parents.

Not staffed

"There is also, of course, a question of fairness that council tax payers in Wandsworth should not have to shoulder the entire burden of funding a resource that is enjoyed by thousands of families who do not live in the borough and therefore do not at the moment pay a penny towards its upkeep."

Its "rough and tumble" nature meant supervisors were necessary and the site also needed a high level of maintenance, she added.

Wandsworth Council has run the park since 1986 when the Greater London Council was abolished and has upgraded the facilities in recent years, a spokesman said.

He said the charges were agreed in February.

The spokesman ruled out any likelihood of the council charging for its two other adventure playgrounds in Wandsworth because they are not staffed.

Emphasis mine.

A dozen staff, workshops, and climbing walls? I'm not aware of any place in my city where you could find that for free. It's certainly a shame to exclude the children of poor families, and I make no argument about what the appropriate cost would be, but this doesn't seem worth getting excited about.

[Eternal_Freedom]

I think this is a case of Labour overblowing what the Tories are doing. On the outset it sounds pretty horrible, but when you look closer, like in Alan Bolte's article, it is clearly more than an ordinary playground. It has staff and runs activities and has equipment you'd normally find on a GoApe course. I hardly think it unreasonable to introduce a small charge for it's use, especially as council tax in the area is already (as said in the first article) about half the London average.

Seriously guys, would you find it horrible if you went to an adventure park and had to pay a tenner to get in? I think not. A small fee is not unreasonable in this case. It's just Labour doing it's best to make the Tories look bad.

[Sarevok]

Is £2.50 really that much ? It's not like the kids would be going there everyday.

[Eternal_Freedom]

Exactly. From the description of the park, I would say £2.50 is a pretty good deal.

[Starglider]

The charge is of course fully justified for a fairly extensive adventure park, which will remain heavily taxpayer subsidised even with the fee. There are numerous free playgrounds all over the area, just not with fully staffed ziplines and climbing walls, so it's not as if anyone is being denied a normal childhood experience. This thread simply demonstrates that left-wingers are at least as prone to mindless knee-jerk ranting and manipulation by asshole politicians as conservatives are.

[D.Turtle]

Though the question is if they are willing to change their opinion after that knee-jerk reaction once more information comes to light.

[Zaune]

Oh, for pity's sake. I should have known there was something off about that article, it was suspiciously vague about what that £2.50 actually bought.
Can we have a source for it, by the way, Bluewolf? You forgot to add a link in the first post.

[Darth Tanner]

Though the question is if they are willing to change their opinion after that knee-jerk reaction once more information comes to light.

I for one am more than glad to perform a massive u-turn and now defend the Tories on this. I've never heard of a council operating this type of facility before though.

The original article is definitely maliciously false in calling it a playground.

[Sarevok]

The charge is of course fully justified for a fairly extensive adventure park, which will remain heavily taxpayer subsidised even with the fee. There are numerous free playgrounds all over the area, just not with fully staffed ziplines and climbing walls, so it's not as if anyone is being denied a normal childhood experience. This thread simply demonstrates that left-wingers are at least as prone to mindless knee-jerk ranting and manipulation by asshole politicians as conservatives are.

Yeah the left wing "will not pay for commercial service" is just as bad as right wing anathema towards paying taxes.

[TheHammer]

Though the question is if they are willing to change their opinion after that knee-jerk reaction once more information comes to light.

I for one am more than glad to perform a massive u-turn and now defend the Tories on this. I've never heard of a council operating this type of facility before though.

The original article is definitely maliciously false in calling it a playground.

The article never should have been written in the first place. Quite frankly, its a non story. That park actually sounds pretty damned awesome (if it is as advertised), and if I could take my daughter there for an equivelent of around $8.00 for the both of us I'd consider that to be money well spent lol.

[TC27]

Did someone really say 'class war' on this thread!?

[Zaune]

Yes, they did. They were not in possession of all the facts at the time.

[Iroscato]

I concede the facts were distorted by left-leaning idiots. But still, I hate the Tories to the very core of my being.