Popular Hemel Hempstead play park appeals for the public's help

The owner of a soft play business, with centres in Hemel Hempstead and Berkhamsted, is appealing for the public's help as the centres remain closed.

Helen Whittington has started a crowdfunder to replace 'tricky to clean' ball pools at DJ's Play in Hemel Hempstead with new sensory areas that would enable social distancing.

On the Crowd Funder page it says: "Our DJ’s play centres are run by a local family and have such a great team but we have been really hit by the struggle of being closed and still closed due to COVID-19.

"Our team have been working hard to make the play centres COVID ready for when we can open, but we have some changes that we need to make and we need your help!

"DJ’s Play needs to innovate to change ball pits to sensory equipment that can be easily cleaned and stimulating for all children and will enhance our SEN (Special Educational Needs) sessions too.

"We would like to give back to our wonderful customers who support us during this difficult time with some great offers for when we reopen.

"Thank you for your continued support. Hope to see you soon! DJ’s Play."

Helen and the company mascot joined other mascots representing soft play centres across the UK travelled to Westminster on July 16, in a bid to get clarity from the Government on when indoor soft play centres can re-open.

She said:"We are still campaigning to reopen but we are afraid that could take quite a few weeks so we are asking the government to come and visit us and see what we have done to make it COVID-secure.

"We are getting all the signs, floor stickers, sanitiser stations and the sneeze shields and we have removed the ball pit.

"We now await government guidance, we can social distance here, we can space equipment out, we can put a limit on the capacity and if adults need to wear face masks we can implement that as well.

"The space at Hemel is big enough to allow for social distancing, that will not be an issue here.

"We are appealing to the public to support us, we want to stay open and we have not received a grant at the Hemel Hempstead site.

"There is a Visit Herts initiative that we can apply for where we have a project and raise money for it and then they match what we have raised, that will help us a lot.

"They want to see that we have been affected by coronavirus and innovations have been made."

There is also a petition to gain extra financial support for closed soft play centres.

Helen added: "We are raising awareness of the petition to ask Government for financial support for Indoor Play Centres."

To sign the petition visit: petition.parliament.uk/petitions.

To support DJ's Play crowd funder, visit: www.crowdfunder.co.uk/remove-ball-pits-and-innovate-with-a-sensory-area.