As part of its medium term financial strategy for 2025/26 that was agreed in February, Greenwich Council announced it would review its adventure play centres (APCs) in order to save £400,000 this year, and £2.2 million over the next four years.
The council said these savings would present “an opportunity to invest in some of the APC sites, or in other facilities in close proximity, to provide an up-to-date more accessible offer, with fewer limitations”.
APC users are afraid this might mean some of the much-loved centres, which feature differing play equipment at each including rope swings, walk ways and zip wires, will close. Some also feature indoor activities like arts and crafts and table tennis.
Residents campaigning to keep the centres open protested outside a full meeting of Greenwich Council last week, many of them fearing closures would harm the lives of young people and make them more susceptible to engaging in anti-social behaviour and crime.
They were also concerned that Greenwich Council had not launched the public consultation which was initially thought to be released in the summer.
David Monteith has been campaigning to keep the Plumstead APC open. At the meeting he asked if the closure of the centres was a foregone conclusion.
He said: “To avoid the risk of being seen as a process to justify a decision already made rather than a genuine dialogue with the community, can the council just please do us the courtesy of being transparent as to what transforming youth play actually means to you and what it practically wants to achieve?”
In response, the council’s cabinet member for equality, culture and communities Sandra Bauer said the council was “absolutely” taking the concerns of residents seriously.
She said the upcoming consultation would take into consideration all the issues raised by residents and highlight “any potential consequences” that could occur as a result of the proposals.
Cllr Bauer said: “We absolutely take this seriously. To be transparent I think you need to see the consultation and as you know it’s not out there yet.
“We have committed to have got that out there by the end of the year. We do commit to being completely transparent.”
In July, Cllr Bauer said the public consultation into the centres was going to be launched in the “coming weeks” but it has yet to materialize.
At last week’s meeting, Cllr Bauer said a number of internal meetings across the council had slowed down the process of launching the consultation.
The deadline for the adventure playgrounds decision was meant to be made by December, but as the consultation continues to be delayed, Cllr Bauer said it “was likely to be the case” that the final decision would not be made until next year.
Independent councillors Majella Anning and Ann-Marie Cousins proposed a motion that called upon the council to commit to retaining all five APCs and their staff.
Talking on the motion, Cllr Anning said: “Shutting adventure playcentres is a false economy. It looks good on paper to see how you can save the money, but what does it take away from children’s lives?”
Cllr Anning claimed that council leader Anthony Okereke had confirmed to her some months ago that the council planned to close all five of the centres to save money and help plug its budget gap. She asked the council to think of those using the service first before attempting to save money.
Cllr Anning said: “Maintaining a safe and healthy environment for children is one of the most important jobs a council can do. This is why we are moving this motion, because we want certainty, the residents want certainty, and what we should be doing is making a retention of these valuable assets our starting point, and then we work out how we can make up the shortfall to keep them going.”
When seconding the motion, Cllr Cousins read out some concerns shared to her by Plumstead residents campaigning to keep their APC open, chiefly the potential for an increase in youth crime and antisocial behaviour. Cllr Cousins said: “Residents feel that clarity and communication are sorely lacking, and repeated questions have been avoided and deflected. Whether intentional or not, it leaves residents feeling as if the council considers them to be stupid.”
A Labour amendment to the motion was proposed by Cllr Bauer, who said the initial motion failed to take into account “the significant savings this administration is committed to making in order to set a realistic budget” as well as not recognising “the opportunity this consultation gives to us to listen to parents, children who are the users, and staff to align play for different age groups across the borough and to invest in better, more inclusive and more widely accessible equipment in the right places”.
The amendment also added mention of Greenwich Council’s £10m investment into its youth services over the last three years, a £1.5m investment into the borough’s emotional wellbeing hubs (aimed at supporting young people’s mental health) and £1,755,957 which had been spent on playgrounds and sports facilities. Cllr Bauer added: “It is absolutely key to look at this holistically with a joined-up approach of departments working together to deliver what is needed by our residents now.”
Cllr Adel Khaireh, the council’s cabinet member for children and young people, said the point of launching the consultation was to gather the views of young people in order to shape how the council would deliver its youth services going forward. He said: “I’m a youth practitioner by trade and I have been for decades. I know the system inside out and I know there are organisations out there that will step forward and say ‘Let us help the council in delivering a youth service that’s fit for the 21st Century’.
“We don’t know what’s going to come out from the consultation, that’s why we’re going out for a consultation. What comes out of there is going to shape it up. You can shake your head as much as you like, but we are going to listen to young people and put their views at the heart of what we do.”
Cllr Calum O’Byrne Mulligan accused the independents of “fearmongering”, saying that he had met with the manager of the Meridian APC and residents to discuss a £15,000 cash injection into the site he had secured from housing developers. He said: “I think that shows the difference between this Labour administration and the opposition here who simply want to play games and fearmonger with our young people.”
