Old-school slides, swings returning to tree stump playground in Charlottetown

CHARLOTTTOWN, – It’s back to swings and slides for a playground in Charlottetown, P.E.I., that drew scores of complaints from parents and residents for a natural redesign that included tree stumps.

City Coun. Mitchell Tweel, head of the parks and recreation committee, said he got an earful about the Connaught Square playground in one of the city’s four heritage squares.

“A lot of the residents were caught totally off guard,” he said Wednesday from Charlottetown.

“I was emailed. I was stopped on the street. People phoned me. I had individual meetings with residents in the immediate area.”

The regional playground was revamped last year for about $40,000. The intention of the relatively sparse new climbing and spinning structures was to encourage imagination in a heritage space, Tweel said.

But residents were shocked when the overhaul didn’t add to the traditional play structures that were already there. Instead, those were removed from the historic square and replaced with more natural climbing options such as balance beams and, of course, the tree stumps.

“We heard safety and security concerns, maybe a child falling off one,” Tweel said. Ultimately, the message was clear, he added.

“Make no mistake about it, we’re bringing back the contemporary, traditional playground equipment.”

Some locals said the new design was better for sitting than playing.

The city plans to install new slides, swings and a play structure later this year but is still working out whether the tree stumps will stay, Tweel said.

A request for proposals to buy the new equipment says: “To date, the square has some low profile imaginative play components recently installed.”

Anthony Toderian, spokesman for the CSA Group which drafts voluntary safety guidelines for various projects across Canada, said there’s no way to design a playground that’s 100 per cent safe. He spoke in general terms, not specifically about the Connaught Square site.

Adult supervision and community co-operation are key, he said from Toronto.

“It’s really a team effort on all parties to make sure that everyone is playing safe and that these structures are designed in such a way as to help protect children, but they also need to be stimulating and encouraging to help foster growth.”

Tweel said the big lesson for Charlottetown is to better share conceptual designs with the public in advance.

“They like their playground structures, and you know what? You can’t replace that.”

-By Sue Bailey in St. John’s.

Follow @suebailey on Twitter.