Fear over future of playgrounds as funding ends

Kevin Sherriff, manager of the Highfields adventure playground, said the projects were "running out of road"

Managers of adventure playground schemes in Leicester have said they fear for their futures after city council financial support is due to end early next year.

Leicester City Council has said it can no longer afford the £1.1m support it gives to nine projects across the city.

The authority initially said funding would be cut from March 2025 but then agreed to extend it for a year in the hope it would give the groups time to become financially self-sustaining.

However, playground bosses have told the BBC they are "on the edge" with funding set to cease from April 2026.

Many of the playground schemes have been running for more than 50 years, offering children in deprived parts of the city support after school and during holidays.

Co-manager of the Braunstone Adventure Playground Mel Elsworthy said it had been hard to find alternative funding

"We are running out of road," said Kevin Sherriff who manages the Highfields Adventure Playground which is used by more than 1,000 children aged between six and 14.

"The best case scenario is that we end up running a skeleton service, with reduced hours, in the hope that something comes along in the future."

Mr Sherriff said the Highfields playground was grouped with others in St Andrew's, Woodgates, New Parks and Braunstone.

He said: "We are all on the edge and have issued redundancy notices to staff. When those staff go you lose so much experience."

Mel Elsworthy, co-manager of the Braunstone Adventure Playground, said: "Things are really tough.

"We got an extension to [council] funding but it can take a whole year to do a large bid for money.

"Our building is in a bad state so we have been lobbying for an extension of funding. All of us are competing for the same pots of money.

"We don't think we will get it, so it's hard to know if we will be able to carry on and that's heart-breaking for the kids who use us."

'Incredibly valuable'

All nine adventure playgrounds signed a five-year licence with the council in 2024, which leaves the council responsible for the maintenance of the playground buildings.

Mr Sherriff added: "That has actually hindered us in a lot of ways.

"It's very hard to get long-term capital grants when you can only show you have a five-year tenure.

"Funding organisations aren't interested unless you own the building or have 10, 15 or 20 years on a lease."

City councillors are set to discuss the playgrounds at a meeting on Monday.

In a report to that meeting, city mayor Sir Peter Soulsby said he had asked council officers to write to the playgrounds asking them if longer-term agreements would help.

Soulsby also said he would consider transferring the buildings' ownership to the schemes for a nominal sum under a community asset transfer.

Soulsby said: "For several decades the adventure playgrounds have given incredibly valuable play and educational opportunities for young people.

"Although most other authorities stopped providing support some years ago, Leicester City Council has continued to provide financial assistance while suffering an unprecedented loss of funding capacity and having to cease all comparable support to third sector organisations.

"I look forward to a day when councils like Leicester will again be able to support and to provide youth and play facilities.

"Sadly, the prospect of revenue being sufficient to do so does not seem likely in the immediate future."