LIB DEMS GIVE SHEFFIELD'S YOUNG PEOPLE TWO MILLION REASONS TO BE CHEERFUL

12.00.00am BST (GMT +0100) Thu 16th Apr 2009

Young people in Sheffield have two million reasons to enjoy their play even more. Liberal Democrat led Sheffield City Council has confirmed that it will inject over £2 million into 23 play spaces across the city over the next two years. Councillor Shaffaq Mohammed, Lib Dem Cabinet member for Climate Change and the Local Environment said: "One of the things we said we would do is provide extra investment to improve our much loved parks and green spaces right across the City. This proposal will enable us to deliver on that commitment.

"This injection of over £2 million will see improvements to 23 different sites by 2011, including Chapeltown in the North, Herdings in the South, Woodhouse in the East and Stannington in the West."

The creation of one destination play space will be included within each of the city's new Community Assembly areas. These will attract users from a greater distance than just the local neighbourhood and will have a play theme strongly linked to the Play Builder ideology.

For example, a city destination site could be created in the Rivelin Valley that would showcase naturalist play and may not be located in a targetted neighbourhood, but would attract users from them.

Councillor Mohammed added: "The key to this programme's success will be engaging with communities and working with the friends groups. Of course, it's vital that we also talk to the children themselves. By doing this we hope to get the best possible result for local people from this major investment."