Published on Wednesday, 28 August 2019 at 4:04:36 PM

The City has built a demonstration parkour play space outside the Loftus Recreation Centre and is planning another pop up for Birdwood Square, as part of our Pop Up Play initiative.

Students from Highgate Primary School visited the new Loftus Centre pop up on Wednesday 28 August to try it out. They were then invited to workshop ideas for their neighbouring park in the Council Chamber with City staff, Mayor Emma Cole and Deputy Mayor Susan Gontaszewski.

“Highgate Primary School students use Birdwood Square for after-school play. As they are Birdwood locals, it was a great opportunity for us to talk to the kids and gather their very creative, inspiring ideas before planning what we will try out next. The kids really enjoyed having a go on our parkour pop up at Loftus. It was a fantastic, hands-on way to start that conversation,” said Mayor Emma Cole.

“Our Pop Up Play spaces are about creating more opportunities for children and young people in the community to connect with each other and enjoy creative, more challenging outdoor spaces where they can play independently and freely.”

Our Pop Up Play project was created in May following an independent audit of parks and public spaces in 2018 found a lack of play equipment for older children and teenagers in the City.

“The high bars outside Loftus offer a physical challenge for older children and like all of our previous pop ups, it is a small scale work and relatively inexpensive to build,” said Mayor Cole.

“One benefit of the new space at Loftus is that it isn’t just for children and teenagers. It has only been up for a week but we are also seeing adults using it for fitness and recreation; proving that you are never too old to play.”

We recently decided to make some of our popular Pop Up Play spaces into permanent features, following strong support from the local community for the project.

To share your thoughts on Pop Up Play, or pitch your own ideas, visit Imagine Vincent.

More Information

Pop Up Play is here to stay

Imagine Vincent

Back to All News