Reader's letter: Children’s mental health is suffering with lack community provisions

Reading the letters over the last few weeks in the County Times, am I the only reader to connect the tragic state of children’s mental health with the lack of local village community provisions such as a primary school at Broadbridge Heath and the lack of natural green play spaces?

‘NEET’ children in ‘Countryside Homes’ at ‘Wickhurst Green’ sounds great, but the language belies the stark reality.

Isn’t it about time education provision is broadened to include forest schools, or at the very least to recognise that playfulness in learning and open green spaces with trees are not unnecessary add-ons but are essential for the wellbeing of our teens?

Bolnore village is a wonderful example of a new West Sussex primary school built carefully beside an accessible woodland.

Paul Kornycky’s insightful letter sums up very well when he says the council has a moral obligation to secure the land which was promised for community use. Even if a school is now deemed not necessary, communally shared land certainly is.

And it goes without saying that green space is good for all of our mental and physical wellbeing.

We can feel how good it is to be in nature and we know how our survival depends on it.

As mental health continues to be a concern amongst young people, we need to take action soon to address these concerns.

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