A HEAVILY-PREGNANT mother has slammed the “outrageous lack of investment” in children’s play facilities in her borough.

Cate Jolley moved to South Woodford with her husband Simon and three-year-old son Daniel in 2014, after a number of years in Hackney and Tower Hamlets.

But after two years of driving to neighbouring boroughs to avoid the “pitiful-quality” of her local playground in Churchfields, the mother-of-one is calling on Redbridge Council to up its game.

Mrs Jolley, of Broad Walk, said: “I lived right next to Victoria Park in Hackney for five years and saw it undergo amazing investment for the 2012 Olympics.

“When we moved to Redbridge two years ago we noticed a drastic difference in the quality of facilities.

“Our nearest playground has equipment that is constantly broken – I always have to keep an eye on my son there as I’m not convinced it’s safe.”

Freedom of Information requests have revealed that Redbridge spends £7,000 on its 43 parks every year – an average of £160 on each park.

Elsewhere, Waltham Forest’s 42 parks get £228,000 in funding every year, while Tower Hamlets gets £332,400 a year to spread across 58 green spaces.

Hackney only has 26 playgrounds but still gets £124,751.

Redbridge also has the lowest number of park rangers, with just 13 staff to look after all the parks in the borough.

All three boroughs outside Redbridge received considerable investment in their green spaces as host boroughs for the London 2012 Olympic Games.

But Mrs Jolley is still defiant Redbridge’s level of investment in children’s play facilities is “outrageous”.

She said: “I think it’s completely outrageous that they clearly undervalue the importance of places for our children to play, meet friends and exercise.

“Families are having to drive to other boroughs, adding to the carbon footprint, and giving other councils money in parking charges because they don’t want to use their own facilities.

“It’s damaging our local economy as we're spending money in cafes and restaurants elsewhere, and it’s completely unfair – the whole thing is very disappointing.”

She added that although Wanstead Playground Association did a “fantastic job” raising £100,000 to renovate the playground on Christchurch Green, it should not be down to parents to crowdfund for better facilities.

She said: “Redbridge is very lucky the Wanstead mums had the time and dedication to do what they did.

“But it’s not our job as parents to fund communal play facilities for our children.

“The council need to take responsibility for this, because a lack of funding is not a good enough excuse.

"If they can't get the funding they should employ someone specifically to source it from elsewhere to make sure our kids get what they deserve."

A spokesman for the council said:“We work with Vision Redbridge to secure external funding to improve play areas around the borough.

"Recently, the council and Vision have been working to support local communities to access funding to make improvement to public areas, and have worked with the Wanstead Playground Association to secure external funding of £100,000 to invest in refurbishing the play area at Christchurch Green.

"Vision have also helped the Friends of Churchfields Recreation Ground secure £12,000 from the Tesco Bags of Help grant scheme to improve the play area

“While there are fewer play areas in the west of the borough, the majority of the open space in this area is managed by the City of London Corporation and not the council.

"We will look at working with the CoLC to see if there are options to develop play areas within these spaces.                                                                 

“We also have a SpaceHive crowdfunding initiative, where local communities can come together to fundraise for improvements to local public spaces or buildings."