5
Parents in Boscombe said that the local playground had deteriorated so badly their children no longer want to play there.
Hayes added: "You walk through a town like Bournemouth and you see a playground boarded up, it just fills you with hopelessness.
"It looks like a blight, children can not learn or develop social skills and they can not improve their mental health through play.
"We keep telling children to get off their phones and screens, but if we're not providing outdoor play opportunities, we're not sending the right signal".
"This is a call on all councils to invest in play opportunities because we've seen over a decade or more nearly 1,000 playgrounds closed across the country."
X
