Manor Drive teachers call for more children’s outdoor facilities on estate
Manor Drive estate needs more outdoor sports and play facilities for children, local primary school teachers have said.
Teachers from Manor Drive Primary School issued a plea for local authority leaders to acknowledge more needs to be done in helping ensure children living on the estate have a range of outdoor recreation areas to play at:
Speaking at a geography local field trip to the local play park, teacher Laura Owen told the Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS) she believed the present facilities are inadequate:
“We’d really like some bigger spaces for the children to be able to play football rather than just a park for younger children,” she said.
“There’s land around the area that’s ear-marked for a playground and football pitch but unfortunately it has not been developed yet.”
She also added: “We would really like some areas where the children can safely ride their bikes”
Fellow teacher Fern Rowe agreed, noting a lack of locally available “active areas” would affect the children’s ability to lead a healthy lifestyle:
“We want the children to be encouraged to be healthy, get out and do exercise,” she said.
“If they haven’t got the facilities to do those kinds of things then how are we supposed to encourage it?”
The purpose of the geography field trip was to get children thinking about how they would like to improve Manor Drive estate. As well drawing pictures of their ideal play areas, the children brainstormed ideas about what kind of new facilities they would like to see on the estate
Six-year-old Noah appeared to speak for many of his classmates when he said:
“I would like a big football pitch [so that] I could play with my friends.”
Residents on the estate, which total some 800 properties, have long been calling for more readily accessible facilities around Manor Drive in general.
A local campaign group called ‘Forgotten Fields’ launched earlier this year, highlighting the fact the estate’s facilities presently include one playground, one post box and two bus stops.
A Peterborough City Council spokesperson said: “We take concerns from residents in the Roman Fields area over a lack of facilities for children and young people extremely seriously and our officers are actively working to find solutions for improved services and facilities there.”