Children and young people will get new adventure playgrounds and exciting and innovative play areas if their local authorities succeed in becoming part of the first year of the Government's national £225 million play investment programme.

Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families, Ed Balls announced on Friday that 65 local authorities in England will be invited to bid to become play pathfinders.

Fifteen local authorities will be selected as play pathfinders from April 2008. They will each receive around £2m capital funding plus significant revenue funding. These play pathfinders will work with children, young people and their communities to develop innovative play sites with challenging equipment and natural landscapes, which will give all children the opportunity to play actively outdoors. The play sites will also be accessible for disabled children.

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The bids should include plans for building a new staffed adventure playground, with indoor and outdoor facilities, specifically aimed at improving play opportunities for 8-13 year olds where they currently lack places to go and things to do, and often in disadvantaged areas.

Any of the 65 local authorities who are unsuccessful in becoming a pathfinder, but who submit satisfactory bids, will be offered capital funding of approximately £1m to develop public play areas, with the first allocations starting April 2008. This will support our aim of developing up to 3,500 public play areas by 2011. By 2010 all local authorities will have been offered capital funding and a chance to be a part of this agenda in partnership with their local communities.

A second round of pathfinder bidding will take place autumn 2008 and this will be open for all local authorities to apply. A further 15 play pathfinders will be selected so that by 2011 30 pathfinders in total will deliver 30 new adventure playgrounds.

(VB/JM)