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THE HEALTH OF BARKING
ground. As a matter of fact the late Alderman Edwards always corrected anybody
who called it " The Park."
There is, of course, no reason why a recreation ground should not be made
beautiful by plantations separating one particular part of the ground from another,
but it should always be remembered the grounds are primarily places of recreation.
You have the recreation ground in Longbridge Road ; you have the Mayesbrook
and Greatfields Parks, and altogether you have made a very real step towards dealing
with the problem of recreation, but what we want in addition, are recreation grounds
which are more readily available for little children without the need for them to cross
main roadways.
Little girls and little boys go through various stages in their development.
When they are three years old they are complete exhibitionists and then it is
"Daddy see how I can do this," and "Daddy see how I can jump over that."
There is no harm in this, providing of course the child grows out of it. The
curious thing about children is that, whilst they are normally and properly boastful
at a certain age, at the same time they are very nervous, because the world contains
so many things which are unknown quantities to them.
When an antelope runs away from a lion it is not cowardice, it is realism and
so with hese little children when they want always to be able to run home to
mother, it is not cowardice, it is appreciation of the reality of the situation.
The fact is that these young children must have their recreation grounds as
near their own doorstep as possible.
I Know there are exceptions amongst children, and I know what I have written
cannot be applied in every case. It is true of a vast majority of children that to
them their own doorstep and their own hearth spells security and that they cannot
be expected to be happy when they are far away from such security.
I do urge we want open air places for children, small enough for us to
afford one in every street or so.
If anybody wants any confirmation of what I have said you have only to go
round some of of our housing estates and see to what use the children have put the
"banjus". Quite frankly the children are nuisance in these places, but with a
little re-arangement they could have been made places where children could play
to their hearts content, without disturbing the peace of the nearby houses.
Employment.
The manager of the Barking Employment Exchange has kindly told me that
the level unemployment in Barking has remained very low except during the
electricity switch-off in February when approximately seven thousand persons
were u employed for periods varying from one to three weeks.
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