Let us make our Martinborough playground safer for our children!

Another accident has been avoided this week.
We are requesting the South Wairarapa District Council to fully fence the Martinborough playground (as they did for the Featherston playground).

Martinborough playground is not secure at all. It has no fencing and children can access the road from all sides. There’s absolutely no restriction of access to the road (which is busy) but also to the skatepark and the basketball court (where there’s always broken glass on the ground). The wooden fences in some places are only aesthetic and do not offer safety (quite the opposite: the little ones crawl, climb and play around them).

Our community and our children should have access to a separate, safe, fully fenced playground.

The roads (Oxford street, Texas street, Cork street) are getting busier and busier, particularly on the weekends, and are way too close to our playground to continue to leave it unfenced. Quite a few parents in our community (Martinborough and wider Wairarapa) have avoided serious accidents.

While young children are supervised by their parents or caregivers while playing, they can move very quickly and it is possible an accident may occur if the playground remains unfenced.

Also, if we have more than one child playing on the playground, our parents cannot chase them in two different directions if they run off.

A fence surrounding our playground entirely can keep our children within the play area and would prevent children from running into surrounding busy traffic or other undesirable areas.

Playgrounds give children a much needed place to play and exercise. Play is a very important part of children's physical, social, intellectual, and emotional development and should not be done in an unsafe area. A fence will contain our children within the playground and provide a safe place for them to play, giving us peace of mind.

There is a growing community of young families in Martinborough but very limited outdoor activities for young children outside of our community playground. We have more and more families visiting our playground and we also have many visitors to Martinborough who take their children to our playground. We would like to ensure they have a stress-free, enjoyable visit.

Fencing the playground will also help to foster relationships between local parents and strengthen community bonds if parents are not distracted by constantly pulling children back from the edges of the playground.

Te Waihinga centre could be included inside the fencing as parents and children often go in and out the Library and the café. But we believe the skatepark and baseball court should be excluded as they include a number of hazards for little children (trash/litter, broken glass, speedy acrobats on wheels).

We should not need an accident to happen to prove that a fence is much needed around the Martinborough Playground area!

Please support this petition to provide a safe playground for the children in Martinborough.

Thank you.