Shamik Das reports on Tory-run Bexley council's plans to charge kids to use a playground - following on from Tory Wandsworth's plans to do the same last month.
Just last month, Tory-run Wandsworth announced plans to charge kids £2.50 to use a playground. Now, Tory Bexley is planning to do the same, charging kids to play, pricing the poor out of the playground. They plan to charge children at least £1 to use Belvedere Splash Park – a plan not subject to any public consultation, a plan which the council admits will disproportionately hit those on lower incomes.
And, just like Wandsworth – whose leader was recently appointed Boris Johnson’s chief of staff – Bexley also has close links to the Mayor. In 2008 he appointed council leader Ian Clement to be his deputy mayor and in February he appointed current Tory council leader, Teresa O’Neill, as his outer London adviser.
Labour’s candidate for 2012 Ken Livingstone said of the plans:
“A disturbing theme is emerging across London. Every time a London Tory council leader decides to charge kids to play, Boris Johnson gives them a senior role in his administration.
“Hundreds of thousands of families in London are being squeezed with higher fares and cuts. I share the growing concerns about the direction of Boris Johnson’s administration with so many of his key advisers behind these ‘pay to play’ proposals.”
As we’ve said before on this blog, the divide between the sporting opportunities granted the privileged and those offered the poor are growing, from playgrounds and playing fields to the Olympics and Test cricket, background is having an ever greater say in outcomes – something the likes of Boris, David Cameron and George Osborne are not only unable to understand, but are actually making worse.
Not all kids go to schools that can boast 12 squash courts, 20 tennis courts, an indoor and outdoor swimming pool, four cricket fields, a nine-hole golf course, rowing on the lake that will host the 2012 Olympics, perfectly mown outfields…
53 Responses to “Another day, another Tory council planning to charge kids to play”
Anon E Mouse
Mr.Sensible – In view of the record selloffs of school playing fields under the last useless Labour government are you seriously suggesting because some kid can’t play on the swings or the roundabout then our Olympic legacy will be affected?
On the subject of local council decisions why don’t you demand Nottingham council starts publishing it’s expenses over £500?
John Jackson
Selohesra, your earlier comment (number 2) indeed led me to presume that you were likely a Tory and also probably an avid reader of the Daily Mail – your clever (?!) prose providing the bedrock for my postulation – were I erroneous in making that deduction, then I apologise.
Did you genuinely not believe (or care) that your comments regarding ‘KFC family buckets’ and ‘cigarettes’ would be considered insulting to any number of hard-working families who disagree with the policy of charging children to use the play facilities in PUBLIC parks ? Given your subsequent comments (number 14) it would appear not, and therefore I was at least entirely correct – and justified – in my use of the adjectives: ARROGANT, SUPERCILIOUS, and PATRONISING !!
John Jackson
Incidentally, I feel sure that I cannot be the only contributor to the forums on this web-site who has noticed a sinister (in a completely laughable way !) development: it is apparent that a number of Tory ‘propagandists’ are regularly using the comments facility in an attempt to disseminate ‘misinformation’.
This is a minor inconveience as their asinine ramblings are usually reasonably easy to spot and frequently entail them regurgitating some neo-con mantra concerning the financial crisis and the previous government. However, whilst this factually incorrect bilge is easily identified by intelligent and economically literate people as the kind of moronic garbage often peddled by right-wing merchant bankers (surely the most aposite piece of ‘cockney rhyming slang’ ever invented !), unfortunately, it is often swallowed hook, line and sinker by Daily Mail readers, who apparently have great difficulty in discerning fact from fiction.
So, for the benefit of those who may be finding it a little difficult to identify these interlopers, here is another useful little pointer: the majority of these Tory self-aggrandising pseudo-intellectuals perceive themselves to be entirely imperceptible as a consequence of their ingenious ploy (which was gleaned directly from the pages of, ‘The Wizard Prang Book Of How To Be A Spy For Boys !’) – they use a ‘pseudonym’ !! Genius.
Anon E Mouse
John Jackson – Two things.
Firstly I’ve been here since the first week; my position hasn’t changed once and I was a Labour voter my whole life until Gordon Brown was forced on the party after being promised a “full third term” of Mr Blair.
Secondly you say: “it is apparent that a number of Tory ‘propagandists’ are regularly using the comments facility in an attempt to disseminate ‘misinformation’”
What misinformation exactly?
Oh and the pseudonym is because Labour have a tendency to smear anyone who disagrees with them – just look at this very comments page and ask Peter Watt, Alistair Darling, Gillian Duffy or David Kelly’s widow…
Selohesra
Oh Mr Jackson what a clever man you are – all those long words are very impressive. What they don’t cover for however is your lack of a coherent response to my basic point that we pay for most pleasures in life.