National Playing Fields Association - Objectives

Objectives

Recommendations on Outdoor Playing Space were first formulated in 1925, soon after the Association’s formation. This helped ensure that every man, woman and child in Great Britain should have the opportunity of participating in outdoor recreational activity within a reasonable distance of home during leisure hours. The NPFA urged all local authorities to adopt a minimum standard of provision of 5 acres (20,000 m2) of public open space for every 1,000 people, of which at least 4 acres (16,000 m2) should be set aside for team games, tennis, bowls and children’s playgrounds.

Since then, the NPFA has kept the recreational space standard under regular review. It now stands as the Six Acre Standard, recommending 6 acres (24,000 m2) per 1,000 head of population as a minimum necessity for space.

In 1992, the Association revised its recommendations on recreational space to include the Children’s Playing Space Standard aspect of the Six Acre Standard. Part of the recommendation then was a general statement of the need for adequate children’s playing space. Planners, developers and local authorities paid too little attention to play needs when they considered proposals for new housing developments. While such plans always included provision for adequate parking space for cars, there was often no similar requirement for playing space for children.

Children are the greatest users of the outdoor environment, but the streets in residential areas have been designed primarily for use by cars, and have been virtually taken over by them. The sheer volume of traffic has come to dominate their lives, and the process of play, it is therefore clear that firm and realistic guidelines on children’s playing space provision are urgently needed.