We are a group of concerned parents and local residents in Pitsmoor, Sheffield. We have major concerns about the safety of the flooring in the playground at Abbeyfield Park. 

Despite many of us having contacted the council numerous times over the course of a couple years, we have repeatedly been fobbed off and told there isn't any money in the budget for replacement flooring. In wet weather the flooring around the play equipment becomes slippery to the point of it posing a major health and safety risk. Many of us have either slipped ourselves, or witnessed others slipping, including very young children and elderly people looking after children in the playground. It is only a matter of time before someone is seriously hurt. 

When we have contacted the council about the situation, we have repeatedly been told there is no money available to do anything about it. The most that has happened is for sand to be sprinkled, which quickly washes away. 

We don’t have huge footfall, like other parks in the city, but we do have many children who don’t travel out of area for trips, for whom this is a main site of play. We are also a ward in the country hardest hit by COVID and in the top 20 wards experiencing the highest levels of poverty in the UK. The need for good recreation and play for our community's kids is huge and vital to their development.

We're now left feeling very frustrated that funds have been found to revamp play equipment in other parts of the city, while we are left with an unsafe play area. It feels like one of the most deprived areas of the city, where good quality outdoor provision is of the utmost importance, is left to languish with a play area that is an accident waiting to happen.

We are calling on Sheffield City Council to replace all of the unsafe, slippery flooring in the playground at Abbeyfield Park with new, safe flooring, to prevent the risk of a serious accident to users.