{"id":2177,"date":"2013-06-29T11:48:01","date_gmt":"2013-06-29T11:48:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/xislblogs.xtreamlab.net\/slwoods\/?p=2177"},"modified":"2013-06-29T11:59:56","modified_gmt":"2013-06-29T11:59:56","slug":"save-felix-road-adventure-playground","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.slwoods.co.uk\/?p=2177","title":{"rendered":"Save Felix Road Adventure Playground"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Never having had children, my contact with local play facilities has been limited. However, I do remember having a lovely conversation about the history of Bristol&#8217;s Easton district with the late local historian Lionel Ellery a couple of decades ago at <a href=\"http:\/\/felixroadplayground.org\/\">Felix Road Adventure Playground<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>The adventure playground itself is sited on what was once the north coalyard of <a href=\"http:\/\/www.cems.uwe.ac.uk\/~rstephen\/livingeaston\/local_history\/coalmining\/shorthistory.html\">Easton Colliery<\/a>, which operated from 1824 until 1911. From 1913 to 1972 the adventure playground then site served as a stone yard for Bristol building firm Cowlin.<\/p>\n<p>Felix Road Adventure Playground was established in 1972 by a group of local parents concerned that their children should have a space to play.<\/p>\n<p>However, its future is now under threat due to funding cuts by Bristol City Council, meaning it can only open for 2 days a week.<\/p>\n<p>A petition has been organised to secure the playground&#8217;s future. You can <a href=\"http:\/\/epetitions.bristol.gov.uk\/epetition_core\/community\/petition\/2326\">sign it online here<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Paper versions of the petition have been left at these places for signature:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Easton Business Centre;<\/li>\n<li>EMAP (Action for Children);<\/li>\n<li>Easton Community Centre;<\/li>\n<li>The Plough;<\/li>\n<li>The Jolly Roger;<\/li>\n<li>The Queens Head;<\/li>\n<li>The Olive Grove Cafe;<\/li>\n<li>Cafe Joanna, Chelsea Road;<\/li>\n<li>Totally Toys, Gloucester Road; and<\/li>\n<li>Playful, Gloucester Road.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<figure id=\"attachment_2178\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-2178\" style=\"width: 600px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.slwoods.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/23\/2013\/06\/felix-rd.jpg\" alt=\"image of Felix Rd Adventure Playground\" width=\"600\" height=\"450\" class=\"size-full wp-image-2178\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.slwoods.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/\/sites\/23\/2013\/06\/felix-rd.jpg 600w, https:\/\/www.slwoods.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/\/sites\/23\/2013\/06\/felix-rd-300x225.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-2178\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Felix Rd Adventure Playground<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>The petition needs 3,500 signatures to trigger a debate of the matter in full council.<\/p>\n<p>What is particularly galling about this funding cut is that Felix Road is located in Bristol&#8217;s Lawrence Hill ward, reputedly the most deprived council ward in South West England.<\/p>\n<p>Meanwhile, play facilities in some more prosperous parts of the city are not having their funding cut to the same extent.<\/p>\n<p>It is believed that <a href=\"http:\/\/goplacestoplay.org.uk\/pathfinder_sites\/36-st-paul-s-adventure-playground\">St Paul&#8217;s Adventure Playground<\/a> in St Agnes &#8211; an area with similar deprivation to Felix Road &#8211; is also under the same threat due to funding cuts.<\/p>\n<p>Why are Bristol&#8217;s poorest districts always treated so badly? <\/p>\n<p>It&#8217;s almost as if the city&#8217;s great and good couldn&#8217;t care less about those not so fortunate as themselves.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Never having had children, my contact with local play facilities has been limited. However, I do remember having a lovely conversation about the history of Bristol&#8217;s Easton district with the late local historian Lionel Ellery a couple of decades ago at Felix Road Adventure Playground. The adventure playground itself is sited on what was once [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":20,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13,15],"tags":[40,20],"class_list":["post-2177","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-bristol","category-politics","tag-bristol","tag-politics-2"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.slwoods.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2177","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.slwoods.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.slwoods.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.slwoods.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/20"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.slwoods.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2177"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.slwoods.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2177\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2180,"href":"https:\/\/www.slwoods.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2177\/revisions\/2180"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.slwoods.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2177"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.slwoods.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2177"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.slwoods.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2177"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}