I’m feeling sad this morning. Just learnt that the Adventure Playground in Battersea Park was demolished yesterday, despite all the campaigning, protesting and petitioning by local people, huge support from the wider community, and the recent brave occupation to try to prevent the council’s bulldozers going in. The sun is shining, but the playground’s been flattened, and I feel flattened too. I don’t have the heart to go and take photos. But it feels important to record this one lost battle, as I wrote a couple of times here about the campaign to save a fully staffed playground. And more important to record the spirit, energy and creativity of all those who got involved, and hopefully will continue to be engaged in the fight to save vital local resources and services. I think about the eight-year-old girl who took the megaphone at the early January rally and spoke passionately to her friends, urging them to join in and help save ‘our playground’; who spent most of her Sunday encouraging people to sign the petition and handing out leaflets. That’s inspiring, and hers is a future worth fighting for.

For more details of this and other local campaigns: Wandsworth Against Cuts