Peel Commissioners say they are continuing to ‘evaluate their options’ for playground provision in the west.
It’s after claims that the local authority is planning to reduce the number of play areas.
Over the weekend one parent who lives in Reayrt Ny Cronk took to social media to advise that the Close Caaig playground was being replaced with a picnic area.
It led to children who use the facility leading their own chants and making posters appealing for their park to be spared:
Hi I'm Chanel, one of the journalists at Meng's Radio. Welcome to the latest edition of Meng's Radio newscast. Yeah my name is Caitlyn. Right now Caitlyn you're also a resident in Peel. Yes I am yeah. Right now you've taken to social media yesterday after you noticed something in your area. Can you tell me what what's it about? Yeah so I live in one of the housing estates in Peel and in a little call this sack and in our call this sack there's a park like a play area granted albeit it's not much. It is used by like a dozen kids every single day including my my three children and we actually found out about it through word of mouth and it's so happens to be that one of the other mothers knows one of the commissioners and the commissioner had messaged them and told them about it and then they then told their children who told our children I was like what was so sorry what's going on here? So I phoned the commissioners on Friday to ask them straight if that is what was happening if the park was being taken apart and ripped out and they denied all knowledge and I was like oh that's really strange because I've heard from other people that this is happening. So that was the end of it and then yesterday and I got a message from one of the other mothers stating that their kids were making some Sabar Park signs because that they had had good authority from one of the commissioners that actually this is happening. There has been no notice there's been no consultation there has been nothing with regards to talk about it being an even possibility of a decision being made on this and no consideration to any of their children or any of the parents or any of the homeowners in the community with regards to this and so I thought that I would do whatever I could to try and find out what was going on. I started by reaching out to one of our MHK's Kate Lord Brennan who was unaware of this situation but was really really encouraging and kind of saying no no you you need to do this I will help you with what steps need to be taken to try and stop this and it was her who said contact the commissioners first and foremost and ask them to halt any work being done until a discussion had been had with the community and with the kind of the surrounding homes and the home owners and with regards to this issue because there's been absolutely no information said to us at all. And now it's nine o'clock Monday morning today's the day that this area was supposed to or is supposed to be dismantled any idea if any of that work is going on has anyone in the community said anything? Not yet so I chat with a couple of parents and I said if you see anything please let me know because if you see anyone starting to do work I will phone Emma Draper of Monks Radio on the kind of information that Kate Lord Brennan said to do and I was just I was really was really infuriated by I have sent an email to the commissioners yesterday quite strongly worded email and based off the back of my phone call with them on Friday when they denied that anything was happening I have it on good authority from one of the other commissioners who messaged someone and I've seen the message and he has confirmed that it is happening and that they are only looking to keep Westview Park the Headlands Park and the Pool Park in Peel and so I thought the best thing to do was to put a post on Facebook just to let the other parents and the other people in the community know that this is happening without any of our knowledge I just want to kind of gain some traction and hopefully maybe get a couple more people to you know contact the commissioners and put forward our case of this is wrong you know it's for the kids they absolutely love that park and it's it's not a lot but it's theirs and it's their safe little space that they can all congregate and play and it's so lovely to see them all playing out together and even the fact that this is being done smack bang in the middle of summer holidays there's dozens of kids out there all the time playing I it just makes no sense I can't understand their reasoning for it if it's a maintenance cost issue I'd like to see how much has actually been spent on maintaining that park in the last two years we've been living there because I've not seen one person there doing anything and I've not seen anything actually being maintained there are fence posts that are missing if that's the issue I'll go and buy some fence posts and nail them in myself but if they're looking to remove it and change it into a picnic seating area they're going to have to spend money maintaining it as that anyway so I would love to know what the issue is if it's a cost issue what cost extra would it be maintaining as a park then it would be if it was to be maintained as a picnic seating area which won't be used by the kids no thank you you know you've answered all of my questions there because I was going to talk about the summertime I mean we had amazing weather the last two days I'm sure the kids would have been all over it and you know how do you even say to kids I'm so sorry but you can't go to the park today and that's the thing like my so my kids are eight and four and a half so my four and a half year olds are just at that age now where they can go and play with the bigger kids because we're in a cul-de-sac and we're one of the last houses I'm happy to let them cross a relatively quiet road and go straight to that park I can see it from my front window and I can't let them go stroll down to the pool park whenever they fancy they're not that I wouldn't I wouldn't do that especially down that busy road and there's so many kids playing there in the summer but even in the winter they still play out there in the rain it's it's their little place to play and they're really upset they were all there was like six or seven in there last night chanting save our park and it's just really it's such a shame that this has happened to them but I'm really I'm disappointed with the commissioners that there has been no communication what would be your message to the commissioners I want them to halt all work on that park until we've had an opportunity to have a session with them and to discuss why this decision was made who made this decision was it a unanimous decision a majority decision I want to know which commissioners agreed to this because I can guarantee half of them in their manifestos will have put something along the lines of making sure that you know parks and communities and housing estates are are kept and maintained well I want them to discuss with us all the reasons and look at all the viable options that we can look at to try and save the little park that is there for them if it means that I need to go out with some pains or some nails and some fence posts I'll go and do that and I know that there are other people in the surrounding houses that will also help me I've had people come up to me and tell me that they'll help me I want to understand their reasoning for doing this and I want to understand why they didn't consult the community they're supposed to represent at the end of the day the commissioners are for the community it's not the community for the commissioners and they should have consulted us about this right can I start with your name and your title yes it's Chris Gregory and I am the CEO at Iowa play yeah so yeah so there is some talks in Pielin, Rietner, Cronk that the commissioners are getting rid of the play area and allegedly going to be putting in a picnic area now we can't confirm that but I do know that the charity is going to be supporting the residents yeah so what's happened is there's a very small play area it's been there since the houses were built now it's not the kind of design that I would ever normally get behind the only way shape or form it's a generic piece of astral turf with a set of swings and a small climbing frame on it but what's actually happened since that was was put in some 10 years ago 12 years ago whenever it was um it's it's it started to face some damage astral turf starting to curl up the play equipment has lost its swings um and the fence has got holes in but what's actually happened is um quite ironic to the fact that it started to get worse in condition is that more children have started playing there and there are local children there that populate that area every day and it's brilliant I walk past it on a regular basis and it's just lovely to see the children out there playing you know I think it says an awful lot about sort of how children play about what interests children and what influences children's play because a generic piece of play equipment doesn't necessarily tick the boxes for them but when it's actually started to to take on their own development so the fence has a hole in it for example well that's a place where the children sort of running it out of it and it's these children in this area have taken it on it's completely theirs and it's so so popular but like you say it's going to be removed and that's to you know that's to the to the what would be the word the to the detriment of of the children now when you saw the social media post I know you were one of the first people or you well yours was one of the first posts where you said I will try and stand by the community I will try and contact the commissioners have you done that yeah so um I have spoken to one of the one of the commissioners who have said that they will try and put the work on hold for the time being I think it's important that so what seems to be the case of that the the local um the local residents weren't made aware of this I'm not even sure how they've come up they've heard about this but it's happening today it's going to be pulled down now there's like I said there's a lot of children that use that area the parents are obviously very fond of that and we had a conversation just before about how parents can can see their children access that space it's a very quiet road it's it's perfect for those children what should be happening now should be a conversation with those residents about the reasons why at least let them know why and then talk to the children about what it is and what their opinions are on this as well so there's little signs that the children are propping out saying save my playground saver it's got its own name it's really taken on its own identity and so for it just to be taken away like that well you know I mean if if someone was to go in your home and take away your tv you'd be quite upset by that you know this is the children's space why is it being taken away from them there's there's been no reason given to them yet as someone who who works with kids quite often how do you try and explain to a little three or four or five year old you can't have this playground what what would be the thinking behind i'm so sorry you don't you can tell you can say skip if you want to no no not at all well this is this is part of the problem is so it was it was brought up in the um in Cape Bruner's Covid inquiry that something the government have not done a failed terribly to do is to look at children's rights in particular article 12 of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child which is the right for the child's voice to be heard and taken seriously on matters that affect them play is something that affects children and what we are seeing more and more and more is playgrounds being taken away from children and nobody is listening to their voice so if you were to go and talk to those children would they be able to articulate what it is that they want from a playground why they love it well and would be able to understand what they're saying in terms of that and the importance of what it means to them and that's where sort of organizations like our own should be coming in you know we we can talk to each other we understand the children we work work with children every day to create environments that that stimulate them and that they they love um so i mean it doesn't seem right in any way shape or form i can't imagine having to go to a child and say right we're taking this away from you especially when it's something they love so so much how vital is it to have like not just in peel just throughout the island how beneficial are these playgrounds or play areas for kids well let's let's start with peel as an example actually because you know peel has a deficit of play areas for children it's got less than a quarter of what it should have and we're taking away yet another one what impact what impact does it have on the child well a plays is plays child's first entry into the world it's how they start to explore and navigate the world how they understand themselves have understand others but we don't provide for that or we don't see it as important children seem like second-class citizens it's not just here isn't the uk as well but that's not right you know we're an island with a rich history of children's play where where you can talk to people have grown up here from 80 years ago who have explored who have played and have roamed together with their friends and that isn't happening anymore and that is going to have a massive well it is having a massive impact on children's mental health and well-being because i was just going to say um i'm in terms of that's where kids pick up your social social skills it's where they learn how to be kind or how to make friends or develop friendships and also independence independence you know in the form that if they fall and get hurt or if they need to get on to a ride or some resilience yeah yeah it's children's resilience that's where they they develop all of these skills like you say and we we don't make time for that whatsoever you know we focus on education oh that's really important yeah i don't deny it's important you want children to be able to populate the job market where they're old enough to do so but what's the point of having people who have a qualification if they can't socially communicate well with each other and we're seeing it more and more and more and the evidence is pretty clear that we're seeing children of this generation who have had less social interaction than any other generation before even during the second world war you know where where bombs were falling down and children were still outside and they were playing but now we're we're deeming children's ability to go and play as something that isn't important well tell you what we're going to see the impact on it it's going to be massive um is there anything else you'd like to add or say anything else you'd like to speak about speak about the need for more play areas around the island i don't know if you want to address that yeah i think that there's if we go back to what i'd said earlier about how this playground in this example has become their own it's the spaces that are often a little bit unsightly to adults that are the most interesting to children i went to some years ago i went to the uh city uh child in the city conference in Vienna and i was being shown around this lovely area and how it was going to be gentrified and made into this lovely space for children and as they were talking i kind of just wandered off and and looked over this verge and there were behind this verge were these foundations of an old building that was derelict inside there the children had painted goalposts there was a big pillar in the middle of their football field but that was a space that the children wanted to play they don't want necessarily nice shiny new equipment look where the children are look where they play and don't take that away from them you know we don't have to spend fortune on on getting equipment but we do need to create environments that are accessible local to the children challenging and a space where children can just be themselves without having fear of adults frowning and pouring scorn onto it onto what they're up to thank you for making it to the end of the manxeradian newscast you are obviously someone with exquisite taste may i politely suggest you might want to subscribe to this and a wide range of manx radio podcasts your favorite podcast provider so our best bits will magically appear on your smartphone thank you [BLANK_AUDIO]
