[tomo1340]

Not sure this is the right place to post this but here goes>

Today we saw a different side of our lovely little village, we took the children to the local play park only to find (I hate to use this term) 'hoodied teenagers' and substantial vandalism/littering. Before we could enter the park a young mum stopped us from going in and told us it wasn't safe and directed us to another park near by. When we got there we found this too had been vandalised and littered. We cleaned up as best we could under the circumstances and let the 3 year old loose on the slide. Suddenly he comes running over with a hole in his jacket and points out some screws hanging out of the seating area of it. We gave up and went home. We have just emailed the council to draw their attention to it as they apparantly have been singing their own praises about how they have just redone it all out.
In our old town this was common place to find grafiti, damage and yobs in the play park with the exception of the one near my mothers house which received regular policing and might have even been locked out of hours but when we moved to this little village we have barely seen any litter in the streets and have never come across a gang of yobs.
Anyway as we are seeking a 'better life' in NZ can anyone give any examples of their local kids playpark? Good or bad I would welcome all responses. I might even add a poll.

[jubjub]

Well, they do get graffitti and they do get vandalised, but there are parks everywhere here and the equipment is in working order and any damage that does occur is repaired swiftly by the council.

Litter around the parks is also pretty minimal (which is nice to see!)

i have certainly never seen any evidence of the parks being inhabited by the teenagers drinking (or worse), because if they do, they are very tidy, and leave no trace of their presence!

[bartons]

Much much better here: very clean, no litter, no graffiti and excellent play equipment! And this is in all 3 playgrounds nearby and was the same in "our" 2 playgrounds in the Bay of Islands. Maybe it's more an urban/rural thing as in both places we lived in a small town/village setting.

[Tia Maria]

I've put its 'yob free', although there are teenagers about - usually texting from the looks of it. There is also the odd broken bottle around, which is always a pain. Never felt intimidated in a park in NZ or in the UK.

I think the way NZ excels is just the amount of parks and the quality of the play equipment. Flying foxes, pirate ships, spinning things ..... all sorts. I have about 5 parks within walking distance and access to the play equipment of 3 schools also.

What I should add is where we live in NZ, teenagers also have access to beaches, basketball courts and skateboard parks. Where I use to live in the UK the only free, outdoor activity available to teenagers was hanging round parks or outside McDonalds as a place to meet their mates.

Cheers

Tia

[Sam B]

Parks here are wonderful, really extensive and challenging play equipment, generally clean, loads of them.

[gil]

What I should add is where we live in NZ, teenagers also have access to beaches, basketball courts and skateboard parks. Where I use to live in the UK the only free, outdoor activity available to teenagers was hanging round parks or outside McDonalds as a place to meet their mates.

Tia

And the local Spar...

[gil]

tomo 1340, where is High Bentham?

[holland]

Hi,

This is something that is such a change from the UK 9 where I came from)...the parks here are very well equipped and maintained and are heaving everyday with parents and children, it is sooo fantastic to see. Everytime I pass a park I am STILL surprised!

[tomo1340]

tomo 1340, where is High Bentham?

Hi Bentham is a little place, a small town/large village where Lancashire, North Yorkshire and Cumbria meet. It is technically part of North Yorks, all the council enquiries go to North Yorks or Craven but somehow it is part of Lancaster. We moved here in October for 2 reasons, the first being to vacate our owned property to speed up the sale, as to be fair it was quite small and looked smaller with all our kids toys etc in and the second because there is hardly any body here and it's quiet. We moved in the last weekend of October and rarely heard a rogue firework, in fact on bonfire night we never heard a firework after 9pm. So far there have been very few negative aspects of the place for us. Family have moaned there are no shops, but we have a co op and a spar, a butchers, a discount shop and a few other small independent shops and it suits us to the ground. On a Saturday we tend to all walk into the village as a family and get milk/bread and treat the kids to a homemade buscuit from the bakery.
I can't really say I am shocked at teenagers taking over the park, I can't say I am shocked at seeing litter strewn about the parks and the parks being in disrepair as where we lived up to October had a kids park that I would have felt un easy going in in daylight, not to mention the thought of needles/glass etc all over the place, but seeing a little bit of litter and damage here is such a contrast to the rest of the village that is shocked us. They actually have organised meet ups here to go litter picking. As for the 'hoodies' I can't really say they caused the litter or damage and it was mainly a preconception on my part that hooded teenagers are trouble makers, there is always the possibility that had we actually gone into the park then they might have moved off. None of them were really big enough to cause much more than verbal abuse but the over protectiveness in me wishes to keep this side of life away from my kids, particularly the 3 year old as he is now sensitive enough to get upset if mum and dad are on less than full speaking terms :D

Thanks for the replies everyone, it certainly provides great information. I have to say I couldn't slep last night and actually got a bit cross with my self for being so petty for taking a kids playpark for granted, there are plenty of kids in the world who would have absolutely no access to kids parks.