Safety at a play area in Yorkshire has come under the spotlight in an investigation by the Wharfedale Observer.

A reporter and photographer went out with safety expert Ian Burks to test the facilities as part of the paper’s Play it Safe campaign.

The “Showpiece” playground under scrutiny was at Wharfemeadows Park in Otrley, where Mr Burks carried out the china plate test – dropping the crockery from waste height underneath the swings to simulate the effect of a child’s skull hitting the ground.

At Wharfemeadows it smashed into dozens of pieces while at a nearby park with better safety protection it merely bounced and stayed in one piece.

Mr Burks told Observer readers: “It’s scandalous, it really is. I’ve only dropped this from three feet, not thrown it, and it has smashed into dozens of pieces.

“You’ve got to bear in mind that the average child swings a lot higher than three feet.

“I shudder to think what would happen if that would have been a child’s skull. They’d have had it.”

Mr Burks’ own son died after falling from a swing and hitting his head on the ground at a Scottish playground.

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