Positive Relationships: Play Boat - All aboard!

Play has taken to the water in Milton Keynes with the launch of a 60-foot narrowboat on the Grand Union Canal.

The innovative project (see News, 30 July) is the brainchild of Milton Keynes Play Association (MKPA) executive director Andy Grout who saw the potential of using the canal, a main arterial route through the city, to reach a wide range of communities. Through the play boat MKPA will take water-based play out to isolated rural areas and deprived communities in the three local authority areas of Northamptonshire, Milton Keynes and Bedfordshire, covering a span of up to 40 miles.

'The idea didn't start off as a boat but a truck,' explains Mr Grout. 'We were going to call it the "Mighty Junk Truck" because we have a resource unit that takes in non-toxic commercial waste which our membership uses in very creative ways for creative play. We pictured a big American truck with a loud hooter that would go around the estates, but we realised that the vehicle would not get into the spaces that we wanted. I was looking at a map, saw the Grand Union canal that goes all the way through Milton Keynes and is protected by a green corridor, and thought we could also go above and beyond delivering equipment by utilising the canal and offering play opportunities alongside it and on the boat itself.'