Nursery World - Call for 200m boost for play space

The 'outdoor child' is at risk of becoming extinct, Tim Gill, the outgoing director of the Children's Play Council (CPC), warned last month. Lack of outdoor play space, an increase in traffic and the low priority which play receives are all contributing to the growth of 'battery-reared'

Lack of outdoor play space, an increase in traffic and the low priority which play receives are all contributing to the growth of 'battery-reared'

children, he said in his final address to colleagues at the National Children's Bureau in London.

The typical 'home habitat' of an eight-year-old - the area in which children are able to travel around on their own - has shrunk to one-ninth of its former size in the past 30 years. Mr Gill said that if the problem is not rectified we could be heading for a 'vicious circle leading to the point where the only children out of doors are those labelled as "feral children"'.

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