Drive launched to raise almost £100k for first disabled adult play park in Bristol

A fundraiser has been launched to create Bristol’s first disabled adult play park after a location was found at Avon Centre, formerly the Avon Riding For The Disabled, in Henbury. It follows a petition made by the Invisible Army last year reached over 54,000 signatures.

The petition was partly inspired by Michèle Morrice, who is a full-time carer to her 29-year-old son, Declan, who has severe autism, is non-verbal and has a diagnosis of bipolar and Tourette´s.

Michèle shared that she had received abuse from other parents at public parks because they did not feel their children were safe next to her adult son.

The petition was taken to the Bristol City Council and a weekly hour-long slot was allocated in a couple of parks. The Invisible Army, however, argued this was not enough and have since taken their campaign for a new park forward.

Now they have a location at the Avon Centre in Henbury, a target has been set of £95,000.

Michèle said: “The council said that the playparks in Bristol are inclusive for everybody. Well, in my experience, they are not suitable for children with special needs either.

“Inclusive means that they have a roundabout that you can put a wheelchair on and able children jump on; let´s all have fun. There isn’t that. So how can their playparks be inclusive?

“I would like to raise the money because obviously, Bristol City Council haven’t got the money, but they haven’t even given us any support in how to do funding or anything like that.”

Carina Andrews, from Invisible Army, said on the meeting with Bristol City Council: “We had full agreement from all parties that it is a need and it’s a great idea but it went no further. We didn’t get any kind of recommendations of space or funding or anything concrete to make this happen.

“We did a call out to some local places and Avon Centre shared that one of their fields would be great for a disabled adult play park considering that they already have a community of people that understand disability, and would like to increase the number of people that can access the centre.

“We hope [the fundraiser] will raise £95,000... [which] will go towards building a fully accessible disabled adult play park.”

In a statement, Bristol City Council said: “Our play parks and green spaces are open to all. And we encourage people to show respect and kindness to everyone who chooses to use them.

“Where additional facilities are desired, we encourage communities and groups to engage with their local ward councillors to investigate the option to use community infrastructure levy funding.

“These funds are distributed by ward councillors through area committees and can be used to support projects that bring a benefit to their local area.”

The fundraiser can be found here.