Dear Deptford people,

Lewisham Council are currently consulting people about play resources for children and have appointed the specialist organisation London Play to help them develop a plan for play for the borough.They want to capture as many views from children, young people, parents and carers as possible about;

  • Play facilities in the borough
  • The purpose and value of play (what it means to children and adults)
  • Ideas for future play development
  •  

This will help London Play produce an audit of play in the borough and begin to develop recommendations.

N.B. Consultation Deadline – 25th March 2022

 

https://consultation.lewisham.gov.uk/targeted-services-and-joint-cyp-commissioning/calling-all-parents-carers-pleased-tell-us-your-vi

Here is a petition from the Alliance for Childhood to save the adventure playgrounds for people to sign/share: 

https://www.change.org/p/london-borough-of-lewisham-save-lewisham-s-adventure-playgrounds

You might also want to look at/remind yourself of the DNA’s Neighbourhood Plan’s child-friendly planning polices linked to space for children both inside and outside the Home:

https://deptfordaction.org.uk/:

Here are the relevant policies we are proposing the Council adopt for children’s play spaces outside the home:

D5.2 Child-Friendly Spaces | Outside the home 

A London Plan Policy S4 Play and Informal Recreation‘ is supported in principle. This translates into the need for Lewisham Council to prepare a Development Plan that is informed by a needs assessment of children and young person’s play and informal recreation facilities in Deptford now and over the plan period. Assessments should include an audit of existing play and informal recreation opportunities and the quantity, quality and accessibility of provision for those aged 0 o 17 years old. 

B Development proposals for schemes that are likely to be used by children and young people (0 o 17 years) should: 

  1. increase opportunities for play and informal recreation and enable children and young people to be independently mobile. 
  1. in light of the significant under provision in Deptford for all age groups support good-quality, publically accessible play provision for all ages (0 to 17 years old) and normally off-site, especially in developments under150 homes in size and on small sites. 
  1. At least 10 square metres of playspace should be provided per child that: 1. provides a stimulating environment 2. can be accessed safely from the street by children and young people independently 3. forms an integral part of the surrounding neighbourhood 4. incorporates trees and/or other forms of greenery
  2. is overlooked to enable passive surveillance 6. is not segregated by tenure. 
  1. The Deptford Green Links policy D4.7 provides a framework for priorities to direct off-site contributions improving routes to and spaces for the needs of children of all ages (birth to 17 years old). e. incorporate accessible routes for children and young people to existing play provision, schools and youth centres, within the local area, that enable them to play and move around their local neighbourhood safely and independently. f. for large-scale public realm developments, incorporate incidental play space to make the space more playable and have regard to the play spade for older children. g. not result in the net loss of play provision, unless it can be demonstrated that there is no ongoing or future demand. Where published, a borough’s play and informal recreation strategy should be used to identify ongoing or future demand for play provision. 

C Major Development is expected to carry out and publish the results of an assessment employing the ‘Child-Friendly Design Standard Criteria and Questions’ as listed in Box D5.2 for each scale (Doorstep, Street, Destinations, see overleaf). Development that can demonstrate at least an overall ‘Good’ scoring result at ‘ Doorstep’ Scale, is supported and looked at favourable. Contributions to the scale of Streets and Destinations are expected as part of the Healthy Streets Approach and Policy D4.7. 

D Major development is expected to engage children and young people in the design process as part of pre-application participation and design of spaces. 

E Major development is expected to demonstrate how proposals for child-friendly spaces are secured during the detailed design stage after planning consent and delivered for certain. 

F Major development is expected to carry out a ‘Play Safety Forum – Risk-Benefit Assessment’ as supported by Play England and the Government.

Best wishes,

DNA

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