• I WRITE in response to the letter concerning Gloucester Gate Playground in The Regent’s Park, (New playground won’t open till after Easter, March 6).

We are extremely proud to be building a natural and inclusive playground in The Regent’s Park which will enable children to swing, splash, zipline and explore.

We believe that play is of paramount importance to children’s physical, mental and social health and that high quality and free playgrounds encourage children to spend time away from screens and play outdoors in nature.

The playground is funded by the London Marathon Charitable Trust and a mix of public and private donations.

Unfortunately since work began at Gloucester Gate Playground we have encountered one of the wettest winters in recent years.

To put this into perspective, from the beginning of November to the end of February, 55 working days (equivalent to almost three months) have been lost due to heavy rainfall.

The Easter opening that the reader mentions was dependent on weather, and recent heavy rainfall has meant that the date of opening now is likely to be in May.

To address the reader’s point about access to and from Gloucester Gate, it is true that we have had to partially close one of two adjacent paths.

However, the walk from one path to another is approximately two to three minutes across a paved surface.

The reason we haven’t fully closed this specific path is that we did not want to prevent access to a popular climbing structure.

In addition, creating a temporary path on a slope in wet weather could be hazardous.

Finally, we agree with the reader that outreach work with local communities is important to enable all children to benefit from this amazing space.

We have partnered with London Play, a play charity, to do exactly that and readers can find out more via: www.royalparks.org.uk/play.

NICK BIDDLE
Park Manager,
The Regent’s Park and Primrose Hill