Before I had my daughter in 2019, I never had thought much about the importance of playgrounds. Public playgrounds give our children so many learning opportunities through different types of play. Just watch a child in a playground and you’ll see how it helps their physical development (most obviously), but also how it aids their social, emotional, imaginative and cognitive development. The safe environment gives children the chance to test boundaries and understand how to be more independent. And we can all acknowledge the role playgrounds have in promoting exercise, improving our children’s health and wellbeing, and instilling active lifestyles that we hope will persist into adulthood.
My daughter and I visit the Salts playground as much as we can. When she was small, she could climb on the frames and use the swings. Years on, I notice that our playground is tired, broken and doesn’t work for children with special needs.
We have three playgrounds in Rye that are managed by Rother District Council: Salts Field, Masons Field (Tilling Green) and Kings Avenue. I visited them all in the last few weeks.
Kings Avenue is very sweet but it lacks equipment for older children. Masons Field has a few pieces of newer play equipment but it still has metal swing frames covered in moss, old concrete jumping steps which don’t feel very child-friendly, and not a single piece of accessible equipment. The Salts playground is particularly shabby. The metal climbing and swing frames have been painted over multiple times, with rust showing underneath, and there is broken play equipment that hasn’t been fixed or replaced for months. It is frequently inaccessible to pushchairs and wheelchairs because of flooding. Admittedly, it is built on a flood plain, but you would think that with modern technology and design we could look at ramps or some kind of drainage so that pushchairs and wheelchairs can get access all times of the year.
The tourists look down across the Salts, to beautiful views of the river and beyond, but in front of it all is our old playground. The town should be embarrassed by the garish, shabby orange and red structures you can see from the lookout on the high street.
If we care about our children’s healthy development, we deserve better working playgrounds for children of all ages in Rye. We also need to look at accessibility for wheelchairs and play equipment for special needs children.
I have reported my concerns to Rebecca Owen, parks development officer for Rother District Council but received a rather dismissive reply: "This is aesthetic rather than relating to play value and as the equipment is routinely inspected, structurally intact and in good working order, we don’t believe its replacement is justified at this time."
Don’t the children of Rye deserve a bright aesthetically pleasing playground and safe environment to enjoy? Shouldn’t Rye be proud of an amazing, inclusive, quality playground that can be used by visitors and locals all year round?
If you feel the same, please sign my petition to get Rother District Council to do a full review of the playgrounds in Rye.
