Greenwich Council has said there is no evidence that its five staffed adventure play centres have reduced crime in the borough, as councillors prepare to challenge a decision to close three of them.
Conservative councillors Matt Hartley and Roger Tester have “called in” the closures, as have Green councillor Lakshan Saldin and independent Majella Anning.
The council’s cabinet voted to close the centres last month, saying it can no longer afford their running costs and that they were little-used. It has insisted the closures of staffed facilities are a “transformation” and not the withdrawal of a service.
There were over 5,200 signatures on petitions against the closures and protests held outside the town hall. The charity London Play said the plans would set a “dangerous precedent for other boroughs”.
A staffed play centre in Woolwich is to be closed altogether and replaced with an unstaffed playground nearby, while one on the Coldharbour Estate in Mottingham is to become a “community hub” for all residents and may have some youth provision.
The centre on the Glyndon Estate in Plumstead is also to be closed but its equipment will remain as an unstaffed adventure playground. However, the centre may be transferred to a voluntary group instead, following responses to the consultation.
A centre on Plumstead Common will remain while the facility on the Meridian Estate in west Greenwich is to become a staffed “youth hub” instead, as part of a relaunched youth service called NextGen Greenwich.
The Metropolitan Police said the proposals risked efforts to cut youth violence, The Greenwich Wire can reveal, while in their call-in, Saldin and Anning pointed to crime statistics for the Glyndon Estate, adding that the report to councillors recommending the closure did not “consider or report on how safeguarding of children and their independent play is to be managed in the absence of the supervised and managed play centre offering”.
But in response, council officers said that “crime exists in all areas of the borough, including areas without staffed adventure play provision”.
“Many parts of the borough – including Blackheath Westcombe, Kidbrooke Village, Middle Park and Horn Park, Eltham Town and Avery Hill, and Thamesmead Moorings – have never had adventure play centres, yet children in those areas are well served by the wider youth offer and do not experience higher youth crime as a result,” they said.
“There is no evidence that APCs reduce crime in their vicinity, or that the proposed changes would increase crime.”
While the police expressed their concern about the closures during a consultation last year, the Met appears to have changed its mind. The report to cabinet said an unnamed neighbourhood superintendent had raised worries – but without quoting the full response. The Greenwich WIre has obtained the officer’s response from the Met under freedom of information laws.
“The loss of supervised sites and the associated support should not be underestimated,” the unnamed officer said. “These spaces offer more than recreation; they provide a controlled environment that helps steer young people away from harm and towards positive engagement.
“At a time when we have made significant progress in reducing youth violence across the borough through strong partnership work between the Metropolitan Police Service and Royal Borough of Greenwich, these proposals risk undermining the hard-won achievements we have secured together. I urge that these considerations remain central to any final decision, ensuring that the safety and wellbeing of our young people remain a priority.”
But the Met then offered an “updated response”, which the council said came after the cabinet meeting which endorsed the closures. The new response set them against the relaunch of NextGen Greenwich.
“I am pleased to see that the council has responded to feedback from the public and have updated their approach,” the unnamed officer said.
“Having reviewed the updated proposals, I am pleased to see the work has been considered as part of a wider youth support offer across Greenwich. Supervision remains an important part of youth provision, so I am especially pleased to see the continuation of some APC provision in Plumstead, and work to look at broader youth support through the proposal of a new community hub in Coldharbour.
“We have made significant progress in reducing youth violence across Greenwich through powerful partnership working between the Metropolitan Police Service and the council.”
Lara Ruffle Coles, from the Save Greenwich Adventure Playcentres group, told the cabinet meeting last month that the play centres “cannot be replaced with unstaffed outdoor facilities that do not work in the cold and wet”.
“You talk of the 70,000 children in our borough, you give a statistic of 1.4 per cent, you say this isn’t good enough usage,” she said. “But that’s 980 young, vulnerable people with somewhere safe to go.”
Sandra Bauer, the cabinet member for equality, culture and communities, said at the same meeing: “The narrative that some have been touting is that this is about closure and an end to services for young people – it’s not and never has been about closure. It’s about play being available to all and for more than 30 hours a week.”
A panel of three councillors will hear representations about the closures on Monday and decide whether to uphold the decision or send it back to the cabinet.
📩 Follow The Greenwich Wire on Bluesky, Facebook, LinkedIn or Threads. You can also sign up for WhatsApp alerts – or subscribe to our emails through the blue box above.
You must be logged in to post a comment.