There will be a photocall at 12.30 pm on Wednesday 6 August, 2008 at Maurice Lea Memorial Park, York Road, Church Gresley with Cllr John Lemmon and young people enjoying National Play Day

National Play Day is being celebrated in South Derbyshire with a fun-filled afternoon at Maurice Lea Memorial Park, York Road, Church Gresley on Wednesday 6 August from 12 noon until 4pm.

South Derbyshire District Council staff are joining with the Derbyshire Fire and Rescue Service, the CVS and Derbyshire County Council’s Children’s Centres to offer free fun and games for youngsters.

Says Cllr John Lemmon, Chairman of South Derbyshire District Council’s Housing and Community Services Committee, “In South Derbyshire in our Corporate Plan we promised to provide four new youth facilities. We have done this. There are now two new multi use games areas at Overseal and Woodville and two more are being created at Mount Street, Midway and on the Goseley Estate in Hartshorne. The multi use games areas provide hard surfaced, all-weather playing areas with goal ends and markings for a variety of ball games such as five-a-side, tag rugby, basketball, netball and kwik cricket.

“The National Play Day theme for this year is “Give us a go”. And we have plenty for kids of all ages to have a go at. We want to encourage more children to have fun playing and to show parents and youngsters that it can be worth using challenging equipment as it builds confidence and self-reliance.”

Among the activities will be inflatable laser games, arts and crafts, a bouncy castle, face painting, sumo wrestling, environmental education activities such as bark rubbing and much more.

Cllr Lemmon concludes, “National Play Day is a fantastic opportunity to promote play and to celebrate the importance of play in children’s lives. All activities are free. At the event We will talk with parents and young people about how they want play services to be developed across the District.”