Mums and their children are to be barred from a pioneering play area near York - because of the activities of a few mindless louts.

From today, children will no longer be able to use the £100,000 worth of slides, climbing frames, swings, bars, towers, bridges and child-sized tunnels at the play resource centre at Askham Bryan College.

Eddie Benson, of the North Yorkshire Playing Fields Association, which runs the centre, said they had had no choice but to lock it because of the ''loutish behaviour of a few older young people''.

The teenagers had driven cars on to nearby fields and through woods behind the play area, he said.

They had trespassed in the play area itself, and, although there had not been any vandalism, women bringing their children to play had been called names and verbally abused.

"It is a real shame," he said. "A lot of people have been getting a lot of pleasure out of it. A lot of mums will be very disappointed. But it is not a public field, it is a private field, and we're having to put a public access restriction on it."

The main purpose of the centre is to test out the latest state-of-the-art play equipment, and advise parish councils and community groups setting up local play areas how to go about it.

But the centre, on land owned by Askham Bryan College, has also been open for mums to bring their children along until now. In future, only community groups who make appointments beforehand will be allowed in.

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