Funding extended for city's adventure playgrounds

Nine council-funded youth centres in Leicester have been told their financial support will be extended by a year.

Leicester City Council had warned the associations running the playgrounds that the £1m budget to support them would end in April.

However, ahead of a budget meeting on Wednesday, the authority said the grants would continue for 12 more months.

It said it would continue to work with the organisations, which support children across the city after school and during holidays, to help them achieve long-term self-sustainability.

Dee Dixon, from Goldhill in Aylestone Park, said the funding extension would offer "breathing space".

"It will be a real help to the five [playgrounds] which have already issued redundancy notices to staff," she told the BBC.

"It is also welcome because it will give the playgrounds more time to confirm alternative sources of funding.

"It's mainly good news for all the kids who use the playgrounds and their families."

The council said the funding extension came in addition to it granting a licence to all of the play associations, enabling them to operate from their council-owned sites free of charge for five years.

The council said it had also previously offered all of the play associations help drawing up business plans.

It added it would provide officers to work with the play associations to explore options for longer-term arrangements for the sites where needed.

Mustafa Malik, the council's assistant city mayor, said: "We fully recognise the importance of the adventure playgrounds and the difference they make to their communities.

"That is why we have listened carefully to their needs regarding self-sustainability and will be extending our funding to give them more time to achieve this."

The council said the playgrounds' £1m budget came from its children's social care division and that the saving was still necessary.

It said the extension of playground funding would mean delays to the start of some projects and the halting of recruitment to some posts in order to balance its books.

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