Provision of child play spaces should be duty in English planning law, MPs say

A work to supply abstraction for children to play connected caller developments should beryllium embedded successful readying law, MPs and campaigners person said.

The archetypal ever all-party parliamentary radical connected play was launched connected Tuesday alongside a run to bring successful a “play sufficiency duty” successful England to lucifer those successful Wales and Scotland.

Tom Hayes, the Labour MP for Bournemouth East and portion of the group, is pushing for the readying and infrastructure measure going done parliament to beryllium amended.

“Playgrounds are not portion of statutory proviso for councils astatine the moment,” Hayes said. “We privation to alteration this and it would beryllium a large change.”

He said the alteration successful the instrumentality would beryllium “no burden, nary cost” to section authorities.

“We privation to physique much playgrounds and we privation them to beryllium inclusive for each children,” helium said. “The wealth for this tin travel from developers’ conception 106 funds that they supply erstwhile they physique caller homes.

“Play is truthful important for children and for communities. We privation to bring successful a play sufficiency work and we are looking astatine tabling that arsenic an amendment to the readying bill.”

Hayes and the non-profit radical Play England besides announced a 10-year run to “make play mean again” astatine an lawsuit that brought slides into the bosom of parliament.

Experts warned the authorities past year that children were “suffering immense harm to their wellness and wellbeing from policymakers refusing to prioritise the request for outdoor play”.

The enquiry by the levelling up committee heard that children were “less important than bats” successful readying law, and that determination had been nary notation of play successful the nationalist readying argumentation model (NPPF) until past year.

In December, aft lobbying from Play England, the NPPF was amended to see extortion for “formal play spaces” – but arsenic argumentation guidance, not law.

Eugene Minogue, the enforcement manager of Play England, said: “Play sufficiency means making definite that each kid has capable time, space, accidental and state to play – wherever they live. It’s astir making play portion of however we program and plan our communities, not conscionable thing added afterwards (or forgotten altogether).

“Our purpose is to marque play a mean and disposable portion of mundane beingness again. We privation a displacement to a civilization wherever play is recognised, accepted and protected astatine school, successful our streets, successful our communities.”

“This is not conscionable astir gathering caller playgrounds. It’s astir embedding play successful however we physique communities – truthful children don’t conscionable person homes, they person a childhood.”

Wales introduced a play sufficiency work successful 2012 and Scotland passed a play strategy implementation program successful 2023. Both see guidance connected readying for play and connected section authorities’ duties to measure play opportunities. In Wales the work is embedded successful health, planning, acquisition and lodging strategies.

Play England, successful a submission to the readying measure that is going done parliament, warned that “informal play spaces similar streets, estates and parks stay wholly unprotected by immoderate argumentation oregon authorities [and are] routinely mislaid to improvement oregon traffic”.

The measure has faced wide disapproval from biology groups and play campaigners who person warned that further deregulation of readying laws could effect successful the nonaccomplishment of greenish and doorstep play spaces.