CHILD'S play has become a serious business for Swindon Council, with almost £400,000 riding on it.

Swindon has been offered £380,000 by the Big Lottery, but first the authority has to launch a five-month study into how children play.

Covering everything from playgrounds to Playstations, the audit will show what needs to be done to help children amuse themselves.

Peter Robinson, the council's protection, play and outdoor education manager, said the borough had been allocated £380,000 in the next round of lottery funding but it needed to prove it had a good plan to use it.

He said the council had started work on the audit, with playground maintenance workers doing a census of children using each area during the half-term break.

Mr Robinson said it was too early to say whether Swindon was a good place to play.

"It's early days," he said. "Play is providing all sorts of activities. There's a lot of information there that needs to be pulled together.

"We asked the people who maintain playgrounds to count how many children were using it during a day on the half term."

He said some of the best games did not cost a lot of money.

"It's the old joke about giving a youngster something in a box and they will throw it away and play with the box instead," he said.

"Swindon possibly has close to £400,000 allocated. There's all sorts of things we could spend it on. It's not just about facilities. It could be support to start a playgroup, play groups in parks."

Mr Robinson said the money would go to "play," not for sport.

He said the money could also go to schemes to improve the safety reputation of public parks.

"When I was a youngster there was less worry about where children were," Mr Robinson said.

"If we could make the parks safer, children could go along and make their own play."

Drove Primary School headteacher Nick Capstick said children needed to be given the chance to make their own fun.

"There are so many pressures on kids to grow up faster than they have to, to see them just playing is wonderful," he said. "Any opportunity the council create would be stunning."

Fun and games at school

PUPILS at a Rodbourne school have been trying out £12,000 of new play equipment.

More than 30 children watched Father Liam Slattery, headteacher Clare-Marie Burchall, and Parent and Teacher Association chairwoman Nicola Kemp cut the ribbon at the St Mary's Roman Catholic School play area.

Mum-of-two Nicola, 34, said the pupils were delighted to have the facility. She said: "It's so good to see the smiles on their faces. It has been a hard fundraising effort but now we can see the results."

The play area will be used by reception pupils, aged between four and seven.

Nicola said: "They haven't had anything like this before, so it's a big improvement.

"My daughter Charlotte was really excited and I'm sure she's not the only one."

The PTA had to raise a lot of the money itself.

Nicola said: "We had school fetes, a ladies' pamper night, summer barbecues and after-school teas. We raised about £4,000, which is a respectable total."

Pupils reckon it's swings and roundabouts

THE Adver convened a group of experts - six Drove Primary School's pupils - to comment on the council's play plan.

Suggestions included setting up an indoor playground, where children could play away from the cold and wet, more exciting obstacle-style play areas and open storage areas in parks where children could keep their bags safe.

Nicole Peters said she liked swings and slides but would love something more challenging in the playground.

"They should have something like a jungle gym with obstacles to get to the other side," said the 10-year-old.

Tatiana Fernandes, 10, said parks needed to be more interesting.

"I like swings and big slides. It's good because children will get more active," she said.

Amam Chaggar, 10, said spending more money on play and parks was a good idea.

"Sometimes they aren't big enough," Amam said.

"You don't have much of an area to play in."

James Ramsay, 10, said weatherproof activities would get children away from their computers and Playstations.

"There should be indoor and outdoor areas," he said.

"If it's really cold you could go indoors."

Kieran Dickinson, 11, wanted more variety and said: "They need to have a range of choices. Some are for three-year-olds and you can't use it."