YOUNG CHILDREN’S PLAY AREA – FENCING UPDATE

I promised to keep you informed of progress of the review of the decision to not include fencing on the new young children's play area. As a reminder, this was following concerns raised from parents about dogs encroaching onto the area.

We have now met with representatives from our design consultants and Charnwood Borough Council (CBC) to take further advice. First of all, to answer the comments on social media that say, 'it's simple, just fence it off', well it's not that simple unfortunately as we have to consider a range of needs which in particular include parents of children with special educational needs and of course dog owners.

The review of the decision has boiled down to two issues (and I appreciate that there are pros and cons to all of these views):

Safeguarding - current thinking suggests that fencing can create areas that foster bullying and intimidation made worse by limited escape areas. Fencing is also not advised when promoting play for children with special educational needs.

Dog walkers – Signs will be going up to advise that unleashed dogs are not allowed on the play area, but I appreciate that won't appease parents with concerns about dogs. I reviewed some CCTV footage on the park and saw for myself an owner allowing a large dog to run freely on the play area so I do understand the valid concerns of some parents. We are reviewing the Control Orders we have in place on the park in relation to dogs and, with the help of Charnwood Borough Council, are looking at whether they need to be enhanced and better policed and enforced.

So, before we come to our final conclusions, we are waiting for a final piece of advice from the Dog Warden at CBC. Once we have that we will hopefully be in a position to decide on a way forward that takes everyone's issues into account.

I'll keep you informed of progress.

Julie Jones

Chairman, Sileby Parish Council

07890 759977