MICHAEL LLEWELLYN-SMITH, Acting Lord Mayor: The Adelaide City Council is in the process of drafting a Children’s Playspace Strategy for the City, which takes on board many of the points raised in Peter Semple’s opinion piece (“Modern playgrounds full of flaws”).
Local government recognises the importance of play to a child’s well-being, growth and future development. The council recognises its role in providing high-quality and well-designed play spaces that provide opportunities for children to play in safe yet stimulating environments.
The key objectives of the work we are doing is to ensure new and existing play spaces in the city provide a high level of play value, contribute to unique play experiences for children of all abilities, and help promote community well-being and social interaction. It will also help to raise awareness of the importance of play for children and ensure that the play spaces are interesting, fun and accessible for families.
The city already has some fantastic play areas. Bonython Park, for example (see photo, above, by Simon Bill), has recently been transformed into a vibrant, family-friendly space, complete with a 25m flying fox, basket and hammock swings, a wheelchair-accessible merry-go-round, waist-height water and sand play area, and a large net climbing dome.
Adelaide is fortunate that the whole city is surrounded by the Parklands which provide boundless opportunities for play.
The council is now keen to take a holistic approach to future play spaces in the city, and will consider Mr Semple’s comments, along with the comments of many others, regarding nature-based play opportunities.
The draft Children’s Playspace Strategy for the City is expected to be finalised early in 2014 and will entail working closely with the youngest members of our community (and their parents and carers) to ensure the play needs of children now, and well into the future, are met.
NATHANIEL JEWELL: A few years ago, the Adelaide City Council spent a small fortune on transforming one quarter of Hindmarsh Square into “a safe and exciting play space”. My heart sank the day it was unveiled, and I realised that “safe” and “exciting” were euphemisms for “nothing much to do” and “politically correct”, respectively.
Before long, young children were routinely outnumbered by goths, punks and other idle teenagers. The council fought back with a politically correct sign, complete with funky punctuation: “Please respect that., [sic] this area is for the use of persons under 12.”
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Bravo, Peter Semple.
RICHARD ABBOTT: So, today we literally go overboard to protect our youngsters from those nasty playground experiences of scratching, grazing, falling, slipping, sliding and the possible broken limb, which in my youth were considered to be life’s awareness nursery.
Now many children first experience their rude wake-up call “driving” a motor vehicle, some with tragic fatal consequences. All because they missed experiencing the pain and education gained from small playground misadventures.
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